The Perfect Temptation
by Space Chick
Summary: Damien Winner is the "Perfect Gentleman" out of all the Gundam pilot offspring. But what happens when he meets Angelina Baker, who happens to be the most pefect of temptations, even if its to cover up her past pain?
1. Arrival of Temptation

_Disclaimer: I don't own them except for the kids!_

The Perfect Temptation, Part 1 

**__**

Damien Winner sighed as he walked into the Maxwell garage in town. He was picking up his car that he had left there that morning. "Hey, David?" he called out as he entered the office. 

David poked his head from under his desk. "What's up?"

"My car ready?"

"It should be. I had Baker look at it."

"Baker?"

"A friend from the colonies. Does a damn fine job considering who the father is."

Damien quirked a pale brow over one aquamarine eye, that matched his platinum blond hair. "And who's the father?"

"Howard," David replied as he got back up in the chair. He glared at the piece of his computer that he had taken out. "I have to have Randy fix this. I have no idea what the hell happened to it."

"Glaring at it won't help you," Damien suggested. He looked out towards the garage. Loud music was blaring. A few clangs could be heard here and there, as well as a few muffled curses. He looked back at David. "So, what's the bill come to?"

David waved his hand. "Forget about it today. All the records are on disc, but I can't run anything since this," he gritted out, sending the computer another glare, "decided it wanted to take a holiday." He looked back at Damien, his blue violet eyes regaining their usual friendliness. He tossed him the keys from the rack behind the desk. "Here you're keys."

Damien caught them. "Thanks, Maxwell. By the way, how's your wife?"

A lazy grin spread across his face. "She's fine."

Damien rolled his eyes. "Don't elaborate. I'll just pick up my car." He shook his head as he walked out of the office and back out into the front. He spotted his car in front of the middle garage. "Is it all done?" he asked the person leaning over the side. The jeans were hopelessly dirty. The person waved their oil and greased stained hand absently. His nose twitched. "Well?"

"I heard you the first time!"

His eyes snapped up to the face that emerged from under the hood. It wasn't a man, but a woman. "You're a girl!"

"So what of it!" she replied, swiping reflexively at the copper hair decided to fall over her forehead. 

"Nothing…You're Baker?"

"In the flesh. I'm Howard's only daughter and child to be exact. Baker is my mother's last name," she replied as she shut the hood of the Mercedes before leaning against it. "And you are?"

"Damien Winner."

A slight smirk crossed her lips. "One of the prolific Winners. There are a lot of you running around the earth and the colonies. And whose son are you?"

"Quatre's."

"That makes you the heir to the Winner Corporation, doesn't it?"

"More or less. But I have a twin sister and a younger brother and sister. I'm not the only one."

"But you're still the son to inherit the bulk of it."

"Yes." Damien scrutinized the woman in front of him. Her silvery gray eyes were flickering with amusement. Her long coppery hair was pulled back into a messy bun. There was an oil mark on an otherwise flawless looking complexion. His eyes glanced down briefly at her body before sending them abruptly back to her face. "Why all these questions? I don't even know your name."

"Angelina. And the questions? Out of curiosity." She tilted her head to one side. "Why? Don't like women to ask questions about you?"

"Yes…I mean…No…I just wanted to know why you had all these questions, that's all," he sputtered. 

Another smirk crossed her lips. "Do women always fluster you?"

A flush worked its way across his cheeks. "No."

"Liar. I bet you're the type to be the perfect gentleman. You get all bent out of shape by pretty girls." Angelina shrugged out of the chambray shirt she was wearing to the tank top underneath. "I bet you get all tongue tied with Randy."

"Randy is hell bent on being as audacious and outrageous as she can. No one can control her, not even her father," Damien replied jerking his eyes away from the soft curves presented by the white tank top. Another flush worked its way across his face. 

She caught his eyes moving away from her again. "Do you like what you see?"

His aquamarine eyes shot to hers. His mouth twitched. "I'm not going to answer that."

Angelina pushed away from the car and walked over to him. She stared up at him for a moment. "You do, don't you?"

Damien looked down at her. Her silver eyes were glinting with mischief. "Are you always this forward to men you don't know?"

"Are you always so perfect?" she countered, leaning forwards. 

He took a step back. "And how old are you?"

"Twenty. The same age as Randy."

"What is it with girls in your age group?"

A puzzled look came over her face. "What does that mean?"

"Randy Maxwell, Veronica Yuy, and Carin Barton are all hoydens that can't resist coming onto guys. You're acting just like they do."

"I like the way I am. Don't you?"

Damien frowned. "This conversation isn't getting anywhere."

"Ang, let the poor man go," David sighed as he came out of the office. He draped an arm over her shoulder. "I think you've shocked him enough for one day."

She pouted. "I was only talking to him."

A dry smile crossed David's lips. "And flirting with him. He's not like Jonathon or Chris, Ang. Bold women are not his forte."

"Thanks," Damien remarked in a droll tone. 

"I didn't mean anything by it, Winner. Just that girls like Randy and Ang here are not your type." David ruffled her hair affectionately. "There's another car for you to look at, Ang. Get going."

"Yes, boss," she said reluctantly. She flashed Damien a brilliant smile. "I hope to see more of you, Damien." She winked as well before she sauntered off, swinging her hips. 

Damien averted his eyes from her and looked back at David. "Is she always like that?"

"A flirt? Yes. She's been like that since, oh, I would say, fourteen, fifteen. She's tried on Chris, Jonathon, and me, but to us, her father made sure she was off limits. And we stayed away, although, Jonathon would flirt back from time to time. There's even a story he said what she did to catch his interest one time, but I have no idea what it is." David looked back at Damien. "She's a handful. Always has been and probably always will be."

"Her father didn't rein any of this in?"

"Nope. How could he? She's his only child and he indulges her every wish for the most part. Guys have been the only place he's put his foot down." David sighed and raked his hand through his hair. "So, what do you think about Veronica?"

"You mean her being pregnant? I feel bad for her, but she did put herself at risk for it. Vaughn is as smitten with her as he was before." He shook his head. "What do you think about it?"

"I feel bad for Ver too. She did put herself at risk for it, but it's happened and there's not much she can do. But I think your brother will be good for her. He'll be able to understand what she's feeling better than any of us ever will. Besides, Veronica will make out. She always does in the end." 

"The things some women do."

David shrugged. "Women are strange. I'm married and half the time, I don't even think I get my own wife." He cast his eyes in the direction of the garage. "I take it you mean Angelina?"

"Angelina. Sounds more like a name you would call an innocent girl. I think she's far from that," Damien snorted. 

A grin worked its way across David's face. "She got to you, didn't she?"

"What do you mean?"

"You have that look."

"What look?"

"Like you've been struck by lightening, but your wishing it would strike again for a better look and feel."

Damien's mouth fell open. "She's not my type!"

"But she does interest you. She may not have to be your type to get under your skin," David smirked. 

"She's too wild for me, "Damien replied as he climbed into his car. He looked up at David. "Maxwell, I don't need a woman right now anyway. I have too much work to do with my assistant being away. Which means I have to go back to the office now, if I want to go home for dinner. Send me the bill when you get the chance. I'll see you on Sunday." He started the car and drove out of the lot. 

David placed his hands behind his head and stared thoughtfully in the direction that Damien had gone. "Assistant's away, huh?" His eyes slid back to the garage. "He's interested. A guy who can't look at Ang directly is always interested. This could be an interesting visit." 

******************************************************************************

Angelina wiped her face clean with her shirt. She leaned against the car she was looking at. She smiled to herself. "The perfect gentleman. He's definitely going to be a challenge." _"And it helps that he's great looking too. I wonder what I could do to turn on some impure thoughts in his mind."_

******************************************************************************

Damien sat in his office, staring at the monitor. He was still thinking of Angelina. He growled in frustration. "Damn woman, can't get any work done now." He raked both of his hands through his thick platinum hair. _"Women like her are trouble with a capital T. All they do is twist you into knots." _"She was attractive, I'll give her that." He thought of the flawless skin with the peachy glow to her cheeks, the full pink lips, and thick sable lashes over the most intriguing set of silver eyes. _"And that body. Allah couldn't have created a better one with all those lush…" _He smacked his forehead. "What are you thinking? Get your mind off of her, Winner! She's wrong for you!" he muttered furiously as he immersed himself in his work once again. 

_A/N: Well, what do you think? You like? Please tell me! XOXO!!_


	2. The Beginning of the Seduction

_Disclaimer: I don't own them except for the kids!_

The Perfect Temptation, Part 2 

**__**

"Tell me about him?"

"About who?"

"About Damien Winner."

Randy arched her brows at Angelina on the other side of the Wrangler. "Why do you ask?"

"I want to know," Angelina replied as she tapped idly on the bottle of washer fluid.

Randy shrugged her shoulders and looked back down at the air filter she was fixing. "He's the same age as Jonathon, a few months younger. He's a workaholic and too serious for his own good. He very sweet though and he has a killer smile when he's not being serious." She looked back up at the other girl and smirked. "And he has this cute nervous gesture. He starts to stutter and blush like crazy. Vaughn still does that too."

"He was blushing the other day when I met him." Angelina took the used air filter from the raven-haired girl. "And his brother, Vaughn still does too? Interesting."

"Don't get any ideas about Vaughn. Veronica Yuy will have your head and you know her well enough to know that I'm not kidding." Randy put a clean filter in and secured it. She glanced back up at Angelina. "She's already bitched at me for kissing him when we were kids."

"You said it was only practice, didn't you?"

"Yeah, but Ver is too much Yuy and not enough Peacecraft. She flies off the handle at anything, especially if it concerns me. She didn't take too kindly to Vaughn and I kissing, even if we were only kids."

"So, is that all you can tell me about Damien?"

"He hasn't dated in a while. Not since he graduated from college last year. He doesn't have the time since his dad is starting to relinquish more of his control of the company to Vaughn and him. Oh, and he prefers quiet brunettes."

A smirk crossed Angelina's face. "I'll have to change that."

Randy rolled her eyes. "You're going to be sorely disappointed."

"No, I won't be. I'll just be myself." A gleam settled in her silver eyes. 

Randy chuckled. "You're going to scare the hell out of him by being yourself. I scare him by being myself." 

"You frighten men on purpose, brat," Jonathon said as he came into the garage. He grinned at Angelina. "You scare men too, red."

"You know I hate that detestable nickname," she said as she propped her hands on her hips, but she was smiling broadly. 

"I know you do," he smirked as he came over and hugged her. He set her down on the ground again. "You look all grown up, Angie. Last time I saw you in person, you were eighteen."

"And over a vid phone," Angelina added with a wicked grin. 

Randy looked back and forth between the two of them. "I think I'm better off not knowing what either one of you are talking about." She glanced back at her brother. "So, where's your wife?"

"Inside with mom, learning how to cook so she doesn't kill me with it." He laughed and shook his head. "I cook better than she does."

"Better not let Leigh hear that," Randy warned with a smirk of her own. 

"You finally married her." Angelina broke out into a genuine smile. 

"Yeah, I finally married her. We drive each other crazy, but we wouldn't know what to do without the other if we were apart." He sighed and grinned again, thinking of his wife. 

"About damn time too. When you weren't flirting with me, all you could think and talk about was her." She poked him in the chest with one finger. 

"It was harmless flirting. You could be a lot more fun than she was sometimes."

"Especially with words."

Randy shook her head. "I don't even want to know, but you better not flirt with her with Leigh around, she'll take that katana of hers to you."

"I know, but she loves me too much to actually kill me," Jonathon replied sending his sister a knowing smile. "So, what are we having for our Sunday dinner?"

"Mom's making roast chicken and grilled beef. But she has to do it inside because dad is still fixing it," Randy answered as she wiped her hands on the back of her cutoffs. "Victoria is also helping since she can cook better than Leigh." 

"Has she heard from Chris lately?"

"No, but you know how he is. She's mad at him for being away for almost a month. It's the middle of July and if he misses her birthday, there'll be hell to pay. He figures he won't call until he's sure she won't try to reach through the phone and choke the life out of him."

"Sounds like her," Jonathon mused. He sent Angelina another grin and a kiss on the cheek. "I'll see you guys inside."

Angelina smiled at his retreating back. "Too bad my dad made me off limits to any of your brothers."

"Your dad would have never let you date any of them, save David. And my dad made sure all three of them knew you were off limits at all times," Randy said as she shut the hood of her Jeep. A smirk lit her lips again. "So, what are you going to do with Damien?"

"I won't tell you that. That's my little secret," Angelina returned with a smirk of her own. 

********************************************************************************

Damien walked past the second garage. He could see Randy and that Angelina sitting on the ground, looking at Randy's motorcycle. His eyes traced over the skin exposed by Angelina's dark gray halter top. He sped up his walking, but not before they both stood up. "A red headed version of Randy, just what we need," he muttered under his breath as he noticed they were both the same height and of similar build. 

Angelina grinned as she noticed how Damien started walking faster. "Hi, Damien!" she called out. 

Damien halted and glanced at her briefly over his shoulder. "Angelina. Randy." He turned away again and raced through the gate as fast as he could walk.

Randy snickered behind her hand. "This could really get interesting."

******************************************************************************

Damien couldn't avoid her looks throughout dinner. He had been the object in many women's sights because of his family's money. This girl was not looking at him at all in the same way. She was staring at him with blatant interest and he knew instantly it wasn't his money on her mind. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat next to Jonathon. 

Jonathon glanced at him. "What's going on between you and Angie?"

Damien turned to look at Jonathon. "Nothing, I met her on Friday since she was the one who fixed my car."

Jonathon snuck a look over in Angelina's direction. She was looking straight at Damien. He looked back at the blond. "She likes you. A lot." He grinned. 

"She's wrong for me."

"Every woman is wrong for you. You need to date a woman who has some spunk in her as well as a good…mind."

"You paused there," Damien noted as he regarded Jonathon warily. 

Jonathon shrugged his shoulders and grinned the way only a Maxwell could. "What did you think I meant by it?" he asked lazily. 

"A million things that I don't want to know."

"Sure you do."

"I don't."

"You want to know about how she caught my interest one time?"

"No, but I'm sure you'll tell me anyway."

Jonathon got out of his chair. "Let's go somewhere else." He glanced at Leigh, who was talking to Victoria, while holding onto Rhys. "Its something I would rather not have my wife hear."

"Now, I know I don't want to know," Damien sighed as he followed Jonathon inside the house. He shut the study door behind him. 

Jonathon sat down on the couch as Damien leaned against the door. "Well, it was two years ago, I had to make a phone call to Howard since I was checking out how business was doing. Angie answered the phone. I was blown away at how old she looked and how pretty she was since the last time I saw her, she was sixteen." He grinned again. "She told me that her father wasn't home."

"Are you going to get to the point of all this?" Damien asked impatiently. 

"I'm getting there, Winner. For someone who doesn't want to hear this, you sure look eager to know." He leaned his head back on the cushions. "Well, I started flirting with her and she started flirting back. It was harmless really, until she did something that I wouldn't even expect her to do."

"And what's that?" Damien asked in a bored tone, but the way it sounded belied his innate curiosity. 

"What's the one way you can't touch a woman and still have a hell of a time?"

"I wouldn't know."

"You're too boring, Winner. At least guess. She made me break out into a sweat."

Damien's mouth twitched. "I really wouldn't know."

Jonathon sighed exasperatedly. "You're no fun, but I'll tell you anyway."

"And what did she do to make you break out into a cold sweat?" Damien questioned again. 

A wicked grin crossed Jonathon's lips. "Hot phone sex."

Damien felt his stomach drop and his mouth parted in shock. "She...You…"  
  


"Engaged in about a half hour to forty five minutes of it. I must say for her being sixteen, she had a very creative mind even now it still amazes me because I more than sure she's still a virgin."

"And is this why you had to tell me in private?"

"Leigh would take a stake to me if she ever found out. It was one of our off periods, but I would still rather her not know. But it was quite entertaining."

"I bet."

"Oh come on, Damien. You would like it too if she went and started in on you." Jonathon tilted his head thoughtfully. "Come to think of it, I think you do like that idea. You have that look."

"What look?" 

"That interested look."

"I don't know what the hell you're talking about!"

"Don't get defensive, but you do have that look. And I bet if she was to do that with you, you would like it very, very much. It would spice up your life for sure."

Damien's mouth tightened into a thin line. "I wouldn't. Now, if that's all, I'm going back outside."  
  


"I wouldn't underestimate her, Damien. She knows how to get under your skin without you even knowing how she did it." Jonathon stood up and laced his fingers behind his head. "I'm just forewarning you since I think you're already hooked."

"I wouldn't bet on that," Damien said as he opened the door and left the room. "Me, interested? Not likely," he muttered under his breath.

Jonathon shook his head. "He's sunk and he doesn't even know it. Poor sucker." His cobalt eyes however, were gleaming with suppressed laughter. 

****************************************************************************

"So, here you are?"

Damien froze when he heard her voice. He glanced over at her as he lay in the hammock. She was kneeling beside it, smiling innocently. "Angelina."

"You've avoided me the entire evening," she pouted as she leaned forwards. 

His eyes went to the pert rosy pink lips. He shot his eyes to her. "I wasn't avoiding you."

"Yes, you were." She stood and looked around before sliding into the hammock next to him. 

Damien started as her body touched his. He started to sit up, but she pushed him back down with both hands. "What are you doing?" The way she was leaning over him was giving him almost an unrestricted view of her cleavage and the feel of her hands were sending shockwaves throughout his system. 

"What do you think I'm doing? Better yet, what would you want me to be doing?" Angelina asked boldly as she smirked. 

A blush crossed his face. 

"Exactly how I thought you would react to this."  
  


"I'm leaving," he said as he tried to get up again. She pushed him back and leaned over him. He stared up into the silvery eyes above his. "Angelina, what the hell do you think you're doing?"

"I think you know what I'm doing.  You're not that innocent."

"No, I'm not, but I'm not Jonathon."

"No, you're not. But you're even better. I can shock you."

"There's nothing you can do that would shock me."

"Oh, I know of one way," she said as she tapped nail on his chest. "Want to hear it?"

Damien aquamarine eyes widened. "No."

"That came too quickly." She regarded him with a thoughtful expression before it turned into a particularly evil smile that one would think that only a Maxwell would make. "How about the hottest sex of your life without even touching?" She leaned close to his ear. "I promise it'll be good." _"I got you, Winner."_

Damien shook his head negatively, but part of his mind had something else to say. _"Yes! **NO! Oh yes!"**_

"The time is now, Winner, let's get started and I'll just blow your mind away."

_"Allah please forgive me." _

_A/N: I know another cliff hanger, but you know you love them! Until next time! XOXO!!_


	3. Fantasy

__

Disclaimer: I don't own them except for the kids!

****

The Perfect Temptation, Part 3

Angelina regarded him with silent amusement. She could tell that he was trying to stave off the faint pink color that was rising under his tan. She could see him trying to hide the interested look in his eyes behind one of indifference. "I'm shocking you, aren't I?"

Damien said nothing and closed his eyes. 

"But that's all part of the fun. This is supposed to shock you." She leaned closer to his ear. "And you'll thank me in the end. Trust me."

His eyes opened and he turned his head slightly. "That's doubtful. I could never trust you."

Angelina pouted. "Never say never, Winner." A smile graced her lips once again. "Now, let's get started. This won't hurt a bit." She leaned up until their faces were inches apart. "What could I possibly do for you?" she asked in a husky tone. 

The way her voice sounded made chills dance across his skin. Damien raked his teeth over his bottom lip. "You…could…leave."

"Oh no, that wouldn't do. Not at all. That's not part of the plan. You see you're getting something better than Jonathon did. I'm right in front of you in the flesh."

"That's what I'm afraid of."

"Afraid you'll like it too much?"

"I'm not going to answer that."

"Don't have to. Now, let's see," she mused as her brow wrinkled in thought. Her finger tapped against her lips. Her face lit up. "I know."

Part of Damien's brain was telling him to get up and run in the opposite direction. There was such wrongness to this that even he couldn't even fathom. But at the same time, there was that forbidden factor which was teasing him. His eyes cast a look down the smooth column of her throat. _"I wonder what it would be like to slide my mouth down her skin to find out what she tastes like." _He mentally clubbed himself. 

Angelina bent her head closer to his, so her mouth was just above his. "We would be lying down and we would be wearing the clothes we are now. I would start out just kissing your lips," she whispered breathing against them, "before sliding my tongue across them. Our lips would part and your tongue would find mine."

Aquamarine eyes widened. His lips began to burn. He was already getting those images in his mind. 

Her fingers curled loosely in his dark green polo shirt. Her eyes caught his. "And I would take it into my mouth and…what do you think I would do with it?"

His hands curled reflexively in the hammock. _"I can think of one thing you could do." _He shut the image off before he got a clear one of it. 

When he didn't answer, she smiled again. "I would suck on it."

The image flashed through anyway. _"Too late for that."_

"And while we're kissing, my hands would be sliding down your chest…and under your shirt…"

__

"Allah help me."

"…And your hands would be sliding down around my hips, pulling me…on top of you…"

Damien couldn't stop that image either. It made his heart stop. He could feel his temperature rising.

__

"Look at that color under his tan. I'm striking very strong nerves." "…Your hands would slip under the back of my shorts…I'm wearing a black lace thong by the way…"

If anything, his eyes got even wider. He couldn't take his eyes off of her face even if he wanted to. "I didn't need to know that," he whispered. 

"You found your voice again." Angelina ran her tongue across her bottom lip. 

Damien could see her lips glistening softly. 

She glanced around her and with deliberate intent, slid her body on top of his. "This makes it much more real, don't you think?"

His body tightened at the feel of her curves against him. "Would you please get off of me?"

"Like it?"

"No."

"Liar."

He frowned. "Nothing fazes you does it?"

"No." She smiled. "Now, where were we…Oh yes…Your hands were under my shorts and my hands would slowly begin to push your shirt up…then you would sit up and I would take it off to feel your warm skin…" Her hands slid over his shoulders over the top of his shirt. 

Damien could almost feel what she was saying. He ground his teeth together.

"…You would than move your hands under my shirt and slide it off…leaving me in just the black strapless bra and shorts…"

His heart threatened to burst through his ribs. His mouth felt dry. 

"…Then you would roll me under you and your mouth would leave mine…to slide down my neck…" She arched her throat and let her fingers slide down. 

Damien's eyes involuntarily traveled along with her fingers. They dropped even further down to the swells he could clearly see above the shirt's neckline. _"This is…"_

"He's watching and trying to fight it at the same time." "…Until your mouth would reach my breasts…my legs would be linked around yours…our skin sliding against each others…I would whimper your name as your mouth traveled over the lace of my bra…"

He could feel the smooth skin of her calves sliding against his. He could feel himself starting to break out into a cold sweat. His flush grew deeper. 

"…Than with a flick of your wrist, my bra would come off…and I would arch my back against your mouth as it trailed over my heated flesh…"

More forbidden images snaked through his thoughts. He could see himself doing everything she was describing. _"Allah's going to have to forgive me so many times it isn't even funny."_

Angelina could see his flush deepen even more. His breathing was also ragged. It was making her lips tingle. "…My nipples would be hard as your hands teased them…fondled them before your lips would close over one…making me groan your name…and arch my body into yours…my nails would dig into your back, making you growl…"

Damien bit his lip from actually groaning out loud. He was burning. _"Where the hell did she learn this?"_

She could see it in his eyes now. Desire was flashing brightly in them. He couldn't hide it. "…I can feel how hard you are…and I'm so hot…and…I want to feel you inside me…so I spread my thighs even more…rubbing myself against you…"

He closed his eyes again, trying to stave off the sudden urge to enact what she was suggesting. 

Angelina liked this too much as well. She really wanted to act out what she was saying with him. In her mind's eye, she could see their bodies intertwined in a bed. Heated color was spreading across her cheeks. "…Your mouth would slide down my stomach and your tongue would make forays into my navel before sliding even lower…your hands would start to undue the snaps of my shorts and slide them down my legs…your hands would slide back up my legs…the inside of my thighs…"

Sweat trickled down his back. His body was humming with suppressed lust. 

"…And you touch me…"

"ARGH! How much more of this can I take?"

"…And I moan your name…"

"I'm going to die."

"…Then you press kisses up my inner thigh…and…you slide your fingers inside…touching me…"

"Someone please kill me now."

"…Your fingers slide inside of me…moving…" The tone of her voice was getting higher, thready. 

Damien could hear it. His eyes opened against his better judgment. He could see her silver eyes glittering brightly and her face was as red as his felt. 

Their eyes immediately locked. "…My hips move with your fingers…until I can't take anymore…and suddenly my panties are gone and your mouth…has…replaced your fingers…your fingers find my…and…I come…crying out your name…"

His breathing sounded loud to his ears. He could hear her voice trembling. 

Sweat ran down between her breasts. Her shirt was sticking to her. She licked her lips. "…You slide yourself up and kiss my lips again…and I can taste myself on your mouth…it makes me want you even more…waves of pleasure are still radiating throughout my body…you take off your shorts and I…slip my hands inside your boxers…"

Damien bit the inside of his cheek hard.

"…You're hot in my hand and you whisper my name as I slide it up and down…I move on top of you again…this time, my mouth is trailing over your chest…sucking…licking…"

There was the metallic taste of blood inside his mouth as she continued.

"…I slide my lips…over you…"

His breath almost stopped.

"…I use my tongue…"

His heart leaped into his throat. 

"…Then as I almost feel you…I pull my lips away and take your boxers off…you roll me underneath you again…"

Damien could almost feel her mouth on him. His pulse was out of control. He knew what was coming next. He was waiting for it He wanted it. 

Angelina's mouth came closer to his. "…And you…plunge inside of me…I'm so hot…so…wet…for you…"

He let out his held breath. 

"…My legs wrap around your hips…so you can go deeper inside of me…my nails rake across your back as you…drive into me…over and…over…"

"This is torture. This is only in my wildest dreams. Nothing I could do would make this up to Allah."

"…Our lips meet in another passionate kiss…our tongues twining…my head falls back…our bodies are slick with sweat…you suck hard enough to leave a mark on the base of my throat…"

"…Allah forgive me…" he whispered out loud in Arabic. 

"…Then I scream your name as my climax hits me…and my nails break through your skin…enough to draw blood…" She heard him say something, but she couldn't understand him. She continued her voice breathless. "…And I can feel…you coming inside of me…and you're whispering my name in my ear…"

Damien raked his teeth over his lips again. His body was pounding at the rhythm of her breathing. It sounded like he was making love to her. His skin itched from the inside out. 

"…And I'm still chanting your name…over and over…like this…" She slid up his body and whispered into his ear, "…Damien…oh, Damien…again…Damien…"

This time, he couldn't keep the groan in as her lips glanced his ear. _"Her voice sounds like I'm really making her…It makes me want to…makes me want…her…"_

She was breathing hard. Her skin stuck to his. Her head fell forwards onto his shoulder. She could feel her hair clinging to her neck and her cheeks. 

Damien couldn't seem to catch his breath. His blood was boiling. He could feel her grip on his shoulders loosen. His fingers released their hold on the hammock. He brought one up and ran it over his face. It was damp. "Damn," he replied against his fingers. 

Angelina heard him. With as much strength as she had left in her, she leaned up and looked down at him. A seductive smile crossed her lips. "Was it good for you?"

His eyes shot to hers. His face went as red as it had ever gone in his life. "You…you…" he sputtered. He pushed her away and managed to disentangle himself. He left the hammock swinging.

She giggled. Than she laughed. She pushed more of her hair away from her face. She looked up at the darkening sky. She stretched her arms over her head, showing off the butterfly tattoo on the lower right side of her waist. "I think that went well."

******************************************************************************

Damien slammed the kitchen door closed behind him, only to come face to face with all the mothers. "Sorry," he mumbled and raked a hand through his hair. 

"You all right, Damien?" Cathy asked as she regarded her son. 

"I'm fine." He smiled weakly and left the room in a hurry. He shut himself in the powder room, locking the door. "Dammit, what did she do to me?"

Hilde shook her head at his departure. "He looked sweaty."

"Probably playing soccer out on the lawn with the other guys," Noin sighed. The door opened again and Angelina walked in. 

Hilde glanced at her. "You look like you've been playing hard, dear."

"You could say that," Angelina replied as she went to the freezer and took out a fudge pop. She sat down on a barstool next to the island. 

Damien splashed cold water over his face several times. "Damn woman. If she's a virgin, I'll be surprised. No virgin can talk like that unless she's done it before. She knew all the right buttons to push. I've never responded to a woman like that before. I can't deal with that. I have too many responsibilities. I don't need some girl screwing up my mind and play those kind of…games." He smoothed a wet hand over his thick hair. He took a restorative breath. "But it's unlikely that I'll find myself in her company that much. She can be easily avoided." He wiped his face with a towel and straightened his shirt, ignoring the fact he could smell her scent of fresh picked limes. He left the powder room and walked back towards the kitchen. 

Angelina looked up when he entered the room. 

He felt her presence, but he didn't stop walking. 

"You look all sweaty, Damien. What could have done that?" she asked innocently. Pure devilry was alight in her eyes. 

Damien paused and glared at her. 

She could see his eyes flash with desire and annoyance. A muscle in his jaw twitched with the same emotions. She gave him a guileless smile and licked the melting fudge pop. 

There was no way he could miss the suggestiveness of her action. And if he thought he couldn't embarrass himself any further, he was proven wrong as color flooded his face and this time down his neck. He growled several more words in Arabic before stalking past her. 

The six women in the room only heard several words muttered in Arabic come from Damien's lips directed towards Angelina before he slammed the kitchen door shut behind him. They looked back at each other and than over at the red haired girl on the stool. 

"What was that all about, dear?" Hilde asked curiously. 

"It was nothing, Hilde. "I think I'm going to go sit out on the deck with Randy and Veronica for while," she replied as she left the room. 

Hilde looked after the young girl she had known since birth. She looked over at Cathy. "What did your son say to her? I couldn't catch a word of it."

Cathy shrugged. "He was speaking it so quietly I couldn't really hear it, but he sounded angry. Usually when he's mad, he speaks it so fast like Quatre does, I have a hard time translating it."

"I wonder what she did, though, I don't think I've ever seen him look that infuriated before," Middi commented as she glanced towards the door where her nephew disappeared. 

"She does have something about her. It puts me in the mind of your daughter," Sally said as she looked over at Hilde.

"Angelina does have that quality," Hilde sighed as she took a sip of her iced tea. "She probably teased him mercilessly and it got to him.

"Must be," Noin agreed. "Now, what were we talking about?"

"Jet and Isabella," Cathy answered. 

"I think that's so…"

"It's so sweet…"

"Trowa nearly flipped…"

******************************************************************************

Damien felt like choking her. He sat alone in one of the trees. He had often climbed them with Jonathon, Miles, and Dominic when they were kids. A breeze blew against his overheated face. "I can't believe I let that happen. Why did I let it happen? I'm such a idiot." He raised his eyes towards the area where the girls were sitting. "I'm stronger than that. I won't give in anymore," he said as his jaw hardened with resolve. 

******************************************************************************

Angelina sat on the deck with Randy and the other girls as they cheered on the men out on the lawn, playing soccer. She smiled thoughtfully to herself. She turned to look at Randy. "You owe me twenty credits."

Randy's mouth fell open. "You mean you succeeded?"

"In more ways than one."

"I'm impressed."

"You should be, pay up, Maxwell."

The dark haired girl snickered. "I would've paid double to see his face afterwards." She handed her friend the credits. 

"It was classic, but I have more in store for the Winner heir. Just watch and see," Angelina smirked as she turned her eyes back out towards the lawn. 

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A/N: Well? Was it good for you? More soon! And stay tuned for a chapter of "Out of Control" next! XOXO!!


	4. Office Rubdown

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Disclaimer: I don't own them except for the kids!!

****

The Perfect Temptation, Part 4

Damien shoved his hands through his hair as he continued with the paperwork on the boardroom table. He was silently fuming over his brother's comments before he went out to lunch with Veronica. "I don't let women play mind games with me," he muttered as he reached up and loosened his tie with a jerk. "Vaughn is just being the pain in the…" He was cut off when there was a knock on the door. "Come in," he called as he leaned back in his chair. 

Quatre smiled as he pushed the door open, but he didn't close it behind him. "I thought I would stop by and see how you were doing."

A weak smile was all Damien managed to give his father. "It's going all right. Vaughn went out to lunch with Veronica again."

"He's been doing that a lot lately. Good for him. She needs his support right now," Quatre replied as he sat down in the chair across from his son. His matching aquamarine eyes met his son's. "And you're working through lunch again?"

"I have to when he takes the hour long breaks."

"Take a break, son. The work won't run away."

"Dad, I don't have the time to…"

"Nonsense, Damien, you always have time to take a break, especially to eat. You won't be as frustrated looking as you are. Your mother always made sure I took a break."

Damien arched a brow. "As I recall it, she would come and drag you home from the office if you didn't."  


A grin crossed Quatre's lips. "That she did. She insisted she was doing me a favor. And it was. I got more work done and I was able to concentrate better."

"But I don't have the time. My assistant isn't here to help and Vaughn's assistant is at her lunch."

"I can remedy that problem," Quatre replied as he stood up and went to the open door. "You can come in now."

Damien gave his father a puzzled look until she walked into the room. _"Oh no, oh no, oh no! I can't deal with her on a daily basis! She'll drive me insane!" _"Angelina," he croaked.

Quatre pulled out a chair for her and sat down next to her. "Angelina could help you until Missus Calen comes back from her vacation. Howard says she almost single handedly runs the scrap yard up on L2. He just does most of the hands on stuff."

Angelina gave Quatre a sweet smile. "I hope I can be of some help to your son." She gave Damien a slanted look. "Could I help you, Damien?"

__

"Yeah, help me into an early grave." "I don't know," he hedged, not wanting to flat out say no to his father's suggestion. His eyes skittered away from her in the simple, yet sexy black suit she was wearing. 

"It'll only be for another three weeks. You can accomplish a lot more in the three weeks with her help," Quatre prodded, starting to become aware of the undercurrents floating around the room. _"What's Damien got against, Angie? And what's she up to?"_

Damien tamped down any emotions that dealt with her, knowing his father could and would pick up on them. He cleared his throat. "I suppose she could." His eyes went to back to hers. "There's a lot of paperwork you would have to do."

Angelina's chin came up several notches from the barb he sent. "I'm a hard worker. There's nothing I can't accomplish." 

Quatre could feel the electricity charging throughout the room as his eyes bounced between his son and his friend's daughter. _"Damien and Angie? Is she the reason he's been twisted into a bundle of nerves this week? Well, whatever it is, he'll get over it. He's just like me when he goes into work mode. He thinks of nothing else." _He cleared his throat and pasted a smile on his lips. "Well, than it's all settled. She'll be of great help to you, Damien. But first you eat lunch, which Angie has for you. Your mother sent it with me and insisted that you eat it."

Damien plastered a smile on his face as well. "Tell mom I said thank you." His eyes went to Angelina as she set the large bag on the table. "And thank you for giving me an assistant, dad."

"It was no problem," Quatre said as he rose from his chair. He pressed a kiss on top of Angelina's hair. "Take care of him, Angie, and make sure he takes a break to eat the food his mother sent him."

"Sure thing, Quatre," Angelina answered as she smiled up at him. Her eyes went to Damien. "I'll make sure he gets what he needs done."

Quatre felt the air crackle again. There was more than enough animosity radiating from his son than he thought towards her. "I'll leave you two to get to work." He nodded at his son and left the boardroom. 

As soon as the door closed behind his father, Damien pinned a glare at the copper haired woman in front of him. "What the hell are you doing?"

She gave him an innocent look. "Whatever do you mean?"

He growled. "You know exactly what I mean. How did you weasel my dad into letting you be my assistant?"

She propped her elbows up on the table and leaned forwards. "I didn't do any weaseling at all. Duo suggested it to your father. He agreed."

Another growl was emitted from Damien's throat. His eyes flickered over her, taking in the figure enhancing black suit. It left nothing to the imagination. Well, to his imagination. He yanked his eyes away. "Just do what you're supposed to and leave me alone."

A wounded look crossed her face before she smirked. "I can't do that."

"And why the hell not?"

"I'm your assistant. I'll be with you constantly."

"Grrr."

"You make that sound so bad. Trust me, I'll be a very good assistant for you." _"In more ways than one."_

"That's a laugh," he snapped as he pulled over the bag that contained his lunch. He took a peek inside it. A slight smile flickered across his lips. She had packed his favorites. "Thanks mom," he said softly as he closed it again. 

"You're not going to eat it?"

"I'll eat when Vaughn gets back."

"And when's that?"

"In half an hour."

"Why don't you just take it now?"

"Why can't you leave me alone?"

Angelina gave him a gamine smile. "Because I'm getting paid to work for you…and to see you get all hot and bothered by my presence."

Damien's mouth twitched. "Here," he gritted out as he pushed a bunch of files and an extra laptop across the table towards her, "go and enter these into the database. It should keep you occupied and out of my hair for several hours. You think you can do that, Angelina?"

That barb didn't go unnoticed either. "I'm very competent in the office, Damien Winner." She flipped open the laptop and the first folder from the foot high stack of files. She sent him an arched look. "Do you always act like a bastard?"

"Only to women like you."

Her eyes narrowed. "And what kind of woman am I?"

Damien noticed that her eyes had taken on a dangerous metallic glint to them. "I'm too polite to say it since you're the daughter of my father's friend."

"Chicken," she muttered under her breath as she began to type the information into the computer. 

He muttered a few choice words in Arabic before returning to his work. 

******************************************************************************

Twenty minutes went by before Angelina looked up again. His head was bent forwards as he read the paper in front of him, making his hair fall in a careless manner over his forehead. She watched as he brought a hand up and rubbed the back of his neck. There was a frown on his lips as he continued to rub and read at the same time. She smiled a little and pushed out of her chair. She walked silently around the table to where he was sitting and leaned over his shoulder. "Your neck hurt?"

Damien nearly jumped out of his chair at the sound of her voice. He turned his head to look at her. Her face was close, too close. He leaned his head away. "No."

"Liar," she scoffed as she propped one hand on her hip. "You've been rubbing your neck and grimacing at the same time. Let me rub it for you."

"Like I'd let you touch me."  


"Afraid you might like it?"

A scowl flashed across his face. "I'm not afraid of you."

"Then stop being a baby and let me take care of it for you," she huffed as she pushed his hand away and began massaging the muscles in the back of his neck. "You're really too tense. Relax or else it'll hurt."

He crossed his arms and gave her a belligerent snort. He leaned back in his chair as he tried to relax his body. It was near impossible since she was touching him and he would admit, grudgingly that what she was doing was making his neck feel better. 

Angelina felt him sink his shoulders down as she continued to rub his neck. She moved her hands up and down the back of his neck, working out all the knots she seemed to feel. She moved her fingers to the sides of his neck and behind his ears. 

Damien felt all the tensions leave his body as she rubbed behind his ears. He bit back a sigh, but couldn't help letting his head fall forwards from her ministrations. _"That feels so good."_

She immediately felt his body relax. Pleased that she had gotten him to loosen up, she gave all her attention to that spot behind his ears. _"So you do have a weak spot, Winner." _

His neck felt boneless as she concentrated on that one spot. He rested his head on his arms, which were lying on the table. He couldn't keep his head up. 

"That feel good?"

"Mmm."

She smiled at his response and moved her fingers from his neck to his scalp. His hair felt silky against her fingertips as she moved them in concentrated circles. "Like that?"

He leaned back against the chair and nodded his head. He kept his eyes closed. Her touch was making his skin tingle in a pleasant manner. _"I could get used to something like this." _

Angelina moved on to his temples, using the pads of her index and middle fingers. 

Damien let his head fall back. It felt too good for him to keep his neck straight. He didn't realize however, that the chair had no headrest and the back of his head was resting against her. 

She was startled for a moment as his head rested against her breasts. She smiled a little more and continued with what she was doing. 

He felt like he was in heaven. No one had ever given him a massage like that before. Even his ex-girlfriend, Claudia, had never given him one this relaxing before. She had never pressed hard enough to make all the tension he had, go away. 

Angelina took note of the look of contentment on his face. "Falling asleep?"

"Mmm," he mumbled again as he moved his head slightly. 

A flash of heat went through her when he moved his head. She glanced down at his face and the peaceful smile gracing his full lips. She was dying to know how they felt against hers. She wanted to kiss him very much. She didn't get the chance however since Vaughn chose to push the door open. 

Vaughn's mouth fell open in surprise as he took in his brother and Angelina. "Oh damn and I don't have a camera!"

Damien's eyes popped open at the sound of his brother's voice. He looked up at her. She was smiling. And he realized just what his head was resting on. "Shit." He pushed out of the chair and put distance between him and her. He glared at her. 

Vaughn snickered at Damien's irate expression. "Now, I must say that was a shock to walk in on, but don't have her stop on my account."

Damien glowered at him. "Shut up, Vaughn."

Angelina sat down in the chair that Damien had vacated. She crossed her legs. "You were enjoying it, weren't you?" she pouted. 

Damien eyed her and her silk clad legs before yanking his eyes away. "I wasn't."

She arched a brow over one eye. "Oh no? You certainly sounded like it with all your "Mmm's."

Color shot up to his hairline. "I was doing no such thing."

Vaughn smirked. "Deny, deny, deny."

"SHUT UP, VAUGHN!"

She gave him a steady look. "Deny all you like, but I know you were. You just don't want to admit it."

Vaughn burst out into full-fledged laughter behind his hand. "She's got you there!"

Damien gave his brother a killing look. "You, shut the hell up! And you," he growled as he turned a glacial look at Angelina, "Stay the hell away from me!" He swiped his lunch from the table and left the room with a loud slam. 

Vaughn collapsed against the door, too weak from his hysteria to stand up anymore. 

Angelina frowned and tapped her nail against her lips. She soon sighed and smiled again. "Well at least I know he has a weakness, but maybe it was the wrong time to get it. How can I get him completely alone?"

******************************************************************************

Damien stalked to the courtyard outside. He felt like killing his brother and strangling her. "I didn't like it, I didn't like it," he muttered as he sat down in the shade of some trees. He stared at the gravel under his shoes. "But I did and that's the problem. I did like it and I liked who was doing it. Damn her for making me feel like this. I don't have the patience to put up with a woman like her. She's a distraction and I can't have that right now." He raked a frustrated hand through his hair. "What am I going to do? I can't fire her because I don't want to cause suspicion. And I know my dad has probably already picked up on it. Dammit! What am I going to do about her?"

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A/N: Like it so far? More will be coming soon, so stay tuned! XOXO!!


	5. Kiss and Tell

_Disclaimer: I don't own them except for the kids!_

The Perfect Temptation, Part 5 

**__**

Damien rubbed his temples as his migraine pounded away inside his head. It was Friday afternoon. Vaughn had gone in to work, so he stayed home. He didn't get them very often, but when he did, they were debilitating. He lay on the couch in the family room with his eyes closed. "Of all weeks to get this, I had to get it this week," he moaned. The week had been hard. Having to look at Angelina for the rest of the week had played havoc with his mind control. The copper haired vixen had teased him, verbally, whenever she had come into his office. She was subtle about it too, but he would catch her meaning. Plus, looking at her everyday in the professional, yet sexy looking suits, made his mind swim with thoughts far from pure. He found his eyes constantly drawn to her silk encased legs, traveling upwards until they disappeared beneath the hem of her skirt. "Crap," he muttered as he opened his eyes again. "Thinking of her will not help me get over this," he groaned again. This time, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes, letting his aching mind relax. "Hopefully sleep will make it go away some," he murmured as he settled himself more comfortably on the soft couch. 

******************************************************************************

Angelina walked up the steps of the Winner household. Vaughn had given her papers that Damien had to look at. She adjusted the strap of her purse before she knocked on the door. Her sandaled foot tapped faintly on the slate floored porch before the door opened, revealing a man more than twice her size. She gave him a bright, polite smile. "Hello, my name is Angelina. I'm here to drop off some paperwork for Damien."

Rashid eyed the copper haired girl in front of him. "Come in Miss…"

"Baker…Angelina Baker. I'm his assistant and Vaughn gave me some papers for him to look at," she replied as the door closed behind her. She had been in this house, once as a little girl. She had a vague memory of the monstrous foyer with the marble tiled floor. "And you are?"

"Rashid, Miss Baker. Young Master Damien is in the family room, sleeping," he replied as he led her down the hall towards the back of the house. 

"Sleeping?"

"Master Damien suffers from migraines and sleeping is the best way for him to get rid of them."

"I see," Angelina replied as she followed him to the back of the house. Bright sunlight hit her in the face as they stepped into a windowed room with sheer curtains. 

"He's on the couch, miss, so if you need anything, please come get me. I will be out in the yard, tending to the fig trees," Rashid instructed as he bowed slightly and left. 

"Thank you," she replied as she watched him disappear through one of the diaphanous curtains. She looked over towards the couch and found who she was looking for. His tanned arm was across his eyes, blocking out the brightness of the room. He was wearing khaki colored cargo shorts with a warm blue t-shirt. His feet were bare. She smiled and set the papers down on the table along with her purse. She unknotted the soft yellow cardigan from around her neck and left it there too. It left her in the matching tank and a short silk skirt of the same color with painted orange red roses. She knelt down by the side of the couch. She smirked when she noticed the smile gracing his lips. "I wonder what he's dreaming about?"

******************************************************************************

 Damien was lost within his dream. Here, he couldn't help but imagine her there. She was lurking about his subconscious for a week. That copper hair of hers was trailing over her shoulder in a wanton mass as she leaned over him. He could smell that fresh lime scent, almost like she was really there. He could feel her soft creamy skin under his hands as they slid up her arms to curve around her slender neck, bringing back down to his level. The lushly lashed silver gray eyes closing as his mouth met hers. Her lips were moist and pliant against his. He could feel the silkiness of her hair as he slid one hand through it, twining the thick strands about his fingertips. His other hand was sliding down the smooth expanse of her back, left bare by her golden halter-top, before coming to rest on the small of her back. He could feel the warmth of her skin as her short clad legs shifted against his. His grin became wider. 

Angelina arched a brow as the smile on his face turned into a wicked smirk. "That's another side of him I haven't seen before." She leaned over him even more, bracing her hands on either side of his head. She gently lifted up the arm covering his eyes, so she could have a better look at his face. His brows and his lashes were several shades darker than his platinum locks. The bone structure was finer, more exotic of that of the Maxwells.' He had a stubborn looking chin. It made her smile since she was all too familiar with his stubbornness. His smirking lips were full. "I would love to know what those lips feel like. It makes me curious on how he kisses, mouth open or closed?" she mused as she let her thumb make a pass against them. His breath made her skin damp. A shock raced up her arm and down her back. 

He felt something brush against his mouth, but he didn't wake up. He didn't want to since in his dream, he was leisurely exploring Angelina's mouth with his tongue and her arms were wrapped about his neck. His one hand was inching down over her short clad bottom, until it was pressing her against him fully. She squirmed, teasing him with the soft press of her breasts against his chest and the movement of her hips. He rolled her underneath him, her knees coming to rest against his hips. He left her mouth to trail down her neck, nibbling and sucking her flesh against his teeth. His hands were sliding up her sides to press against the plump outer curves of her breasts. A whimper vibrated against his lips, making him smile as he went lower. She tasted like the key lime pie that Vaughn loved, the one that Randy just happened to make. He absently licked his lips. 

Her brows arched even more and a grin crossed her mouth. "So, it's that kind of dream, is it? Maybe I should make it a reality instead of a fantasy," she murmured, devilry lurking in her eyes. She leaned forwards and pressed her lips against his. They were warm, just like she thought they'd be. 

Damien felt lips against his again. He kissed back, loving the feel of her tongue sliding over his. 

When he started kissing her back, she pulled her torso over his, and slid her arms around his neck. Her lips parted as their tongues met, slipping and sliding over each other. She felt his arms wrap around her back, his fingers dancing along her spine. It made her nerve endings tingle and her heart rate escalate. Suddenly she found herself pulled completely on top of him and his hands sliding over the material of her skirt until they covered her rear end. A pleased whimper rose from her lips. 

The dream was almost too good to be real. He could feel the heat of her skin through the material. A whimper vibrated against his lips as he pulled her on top of his frame again. This time he trailed them under her chin, nipping gently. "Angelina," he whispered, "I want you."

Her eyes nearly popped open at that statement, but she had no other time to react when Vaughn slammed into the room. 

"WHAT THE HELL?"

Damien's eyes popped open and found his lips locked with hers. Her eyes stared into his. They were wide eyed, as he was sure his were. He pushed her off and sat up, only to have his head throb painfully. "What?"

Vaughn threw his hands up in the air and looked up towards the ceiling. "Just my luck! Something must have happened up there and said, today is the day that we're going to fuck with your life, Vaughn Winner! Great! Just fucking great!" he shouted as he pointed at them. 

Angelina sat in a heap on the floor, still dazed from Damien's kiss. She turned her eyes towards him. "Does ow have any meaning to you?"

Damien glared at her for a moment. He looked back at his brother. His ears were ringing. "Could you tone it down some, my head feels like it's going to come off," he snapped. "What the hell are you so pissed about?"

"A number of things!" Vaughn shot back in response as he shoved his hand through his hair again. It was in hopeless disarray as some blond locks stuck straight up in the air. "This is so not my day. First I get challenged to a race with Bobby, in which I kick his ass. Then I get into a fistfight with him. I get a split lip and some hefty bruises. Then Randy tries to take care of me, holding me down by sitting on my chest. I'm shirtless by the way. And Veronica walks in, blows up at Randy and me. Now she won't talk to me or even look at me. I've tried calling her, but Victoria answers and tells me to go jump in the bay. And to top it off, I come home and find you necking with her!"  
  


"I didn't like it!" Damien protested.

"You were the one having the pornographic dream," Angelina replied from her position on the floor. "I think you liked it very much because you did say you wanted me."

Vaughn rolled his eyes. "For the love of Allah, Damien, just admit you want her and be done with it! You were kissing her! I can even feel the vibes coming off of you and all you can do is deny."

  
Damien's face turned bright red. "Dreams have no relevance," he sputtered as he glared at her and his brother. "You shouldn't have gotten into a fight with Bobby in the first place, Vaughn. While standing by Veronica is commendable, you shouldn't get too involved like getting into fights with Bobby over her. She got herself into this mess."

Vaughn glared at his brother. "Don't you start sounding like Quatrina! I get enough crap from her about how Veronica is a tainted woman and that I shouldn't chase after a girl like her. But you know what, I'm in love with her and I couldn't care less what our sister or you say about it!"

Damien stood up, even though it made the pounding in his head worse. He confronted his younger brother. "She's pregnant out of wedlock. There are repercussions. Are you prepared for the heat that comes with being with her, knowing the reputation that she's had?"  
  


"I am prepared. You don't have to tell me what kind of reputation she's had!"

"Are you going to be able to look at that child she carries, knowing that it belongs to someone else?"

Vaughn's eyes narrowed to mere slits. "Yes."  
  


Damien narrowed his eyes back. "Then I hope you know what you're doing. You seem to fall for the women who like to live fast and loose. Randy wasn't much better than Veronica."

"What do you mean by "Randy wasn't much better?" Vaughn snarled. 

"Because, you idiot, I saw what happened between you two just after your sixteenth birthday. In the hot tub."

"How did you…"

"How did I? I came home that night because I didn't want to wait for morning to come home. I came home that night and just happened to hear the music and I peek in to see what's going on, I see you and Randy…making out no less."

  
Vaughn's face colored from the collar of his shirt all the way to his hairline. "You saw that?"

"What the hell were you two thinking? If our father had caught you, he would beat the crap out of you for necking with her in the first place, then you would've dealt with Duo, and he would've killed you for touching her like you were!" Damien snapped. His brain was still buzzing. 

"You were necking with Randy? I didn't know that," Angelina commented as she stood up from the floor. "And you two never dated?"

Vaughn's mouth tightened. "No. We didn't." He closed his eyes. "That night was a mistake and we both knew it. We drank too much for one and we had been practicing kissing on each other since we were fourteen. Neither of us meant for it to go that far, but it did." His eyes opened and centered on his brother again. "And you sure as hell, better not mention this to anyone. I don't want to be a dead man before I turn twenty-one. And one more thing, until you can get your own love life fixed, keep your opinions about mine to yourself." With that he spun on his heel and slammed out of the room. 

Damien's ears clanged. He put his hands on either side of his head. "Dammit," he muttered. It felt like it was going to come off at any second. "Fucking migraine." He turned his eyes back towards Angelina, who was standing next to the couch still. "And the reason you were kissing me was?"

"It seemed like a good idea at the time. You were smirking the entire time I was watching you. Plus, you licked your lips a couple of times too, while you were still smirking," she replied as she held her hands behind her back. "And I wanted to kiss you to find out exactly what you were dreaming about. I got a pretty good idea."

Hot color flooded his features. "It doesn't mean I…"

"Want to hop into bed with me?"

"Exactly."

"But you want me."

"I say things in my sleep that I don't mean."

"Liar."

"I'm not lying." His brain continued to feel like it was coming apart. 

"You are. You just don't want to admit that the "perfect" gentleman, Damien Winner, has porno dreams about a girl he professes to dislike more than anything because she's the wrong kind of girl and you don't want distractions," Angelina answered in a syrupy voice. 

His face got redder. She had come closer to the truth. Hell, what was he kidding, she was telling the truth. Damien wasn't going to admit it though. "Girls like you always get dreamed about. You're the type that men fool around with, but don't marry. I don't need that kind of woman in my life."

Twin spots of color dotted her cheeks at the blatant insult of her morality. "I have morals, thank you very much. I've also retained my virginity too, in case you were wondering," she gritted out with her chin titled up high. "I just like to act like I have that kind of fun and there is no harm in shameless flirting and sexual innuendos."

"Only if you don't want to be taken seriously. Learn some tact and maybe some foolish guy will have the unfortunate mistake of falling in love with you."

His remark made her furious. "You bastard."

He was stunned by the fury he heard in her voice. Those silver eyes of hers were flashing and her hands were fisted at her sides. It seemed to him, that he had struck a nerve. He wasn't sure that he liked that. He took a deep breath. "I didn't mean that last comment like it sounded. I have a headache and I don't think clearly on what I'm saying."

"That's bullshit. You meant it, headache or not. You think that I've always been like this? That I've always been what you see in front of you? Hell no! There's a lot more to me then what you see. If you did, you'd be shocked at what you found," Angelina hissed as she turned away from him. "Vaughn knows more about each and every one of us, including me, then we care to let people know. There's a lot more then meets the eye and you know it. But I forget, you're not empathic, so you only see what you want to see, and you would deny everything you felt because you don't want to be in the wrong."

"You're right, I don't like being wrong, but nor do I like women who throw themselves at me. I've had too much of that to last me two lifetimes."

"They wanted you for your money. I don't throw myself at you for your money. That's not my incentive."

"Then what is your incentive?"

"Just you."

He arched a brow at her. "Just me?"

"Is that hard to believe?"

"Yes."

"Didn't that ex-girlfriend of yours, Claudia want you like that?"

A painful look crossed his face. "I'm not going to talk about it."

Angelina cocked her head to one side. "That look of pain doesn't look like it belongs with your migraine," she commented quietly.

"Just drop it."  
  


"Why?"

"Because I don't want to talk about her."

"How long did you date her for?"

"Will you stop?"

"Then answer me."

"Five years."

She let out a low whistle. "That's a long time. What happened?"

"It's none of your business, Angelina, so drop it!" 

She studied him a bit more. Pain was flickering in the depths of his eyes, which was not wholly from the migraine he had. He was hiding something about his ex and apparently, it hurt him very badly. "Fine, but it doesn't mean I'll stop pursuing you."

"It won't get you anywhere," Damien replied as he sat down on the opposite couch, cradling his head between his hands. "I don't have time for women. I have a business to run. And I don't have time for you, so stop throwing yourself at me."

"No."

"No?"

"That's what I said. You need the distraction and I like to think that you enjoy having me around because I make you forget what you're doing. I make you feel something and that's why you fight it. You don't want to feel a thing," she said as she picked up her purse and sweater. She looked down at his bowed head. The blond locks curled over his enmeshed fingers. "You can look at the papers I brought over for you when you feel better," she said as she went over to him. She paused and pressed a kiss on top of his head where his hands were. "I hope you do feel better, Damien," she said softly as she left the room. 

Damien looked up and stared at her retreating figure. Her lips left a warm impression on the back of his hand. The scent of her perfume swirled around him. He glanced down at the papers on the table, but closed his eyes. _"Claudia." His eyes popped open as his heart twisted at the mere thought of her. Then he thought of Angelina. She was making him feel something. She made him feel anger, frustration, and most of all, desire. Want. Need. She was creating something inside of him that he couldn't control and in the deepest, darkest part of his soul, he craved what she was feeding him. But it was hard to separate the two. Claudia who had held his heart for so long and Angelina, who, not in so many words, expressed her desire to claim it. "Fuck," he muttered under his breath as he leaned back against the couch, confused and in even more pain than before. _

She drove Hilde's Tahoe down to the beach. Slipping off her shoes, she walked along the water's edge. Angelina knew she'd shocked him by her declaration. She was in it more for him. She liked him very much because he fought it so badly. A frown then tinged her lips. "Then what did this Claudia do to him to make him feel that way about girls?" she mused as water continued to splash against her ankles as she continued to be lost in thought.

_A/N: I know it took me awhile, but here it is. I hope you all are enjoying this story so far, so stay tuned for more coming soon! XOXO!! _


	6. Claudia

_Disclaimer: I don't own them except for the kids!_

The Perfect Temptation, Part 6 

**__**

Damien sat inside his office that Monday morning. He was blissfully alone since he had left her a list of errands to run on her desk outside. So for a few hours he could be free and clear of her. He was pleased with the work she did. She was competent and obviously very bright. Her interest in him, however, was another story. He had never been pursued for just himself. At least those times he could forget about them in an instant and not think twice. She was becoming rooted within his mind and body. He couldn't get her out. He sighed and leaned back in his leather chair, tapping his pen on the documents on his desk. They had to be signed. "Another day at the office," he muttered under his breath. There was a knock on the doors, making his eyes leave the paper in front of him. "There's no way that could be Angelina," he said under his breath as his eyes returned to the paper. "Come in."

"I was wondering if you were going to say that."

He froze and slowly lifted his eyes towards the door. She looked exactly like he remembered. Soft chocolate brown hair curled about her shoulders, her eyes, the rich blue of the Mediterranean, creamy ivory skin, and a svelte body clothed in a slim fitting black skirt with a primrose pink sweater with narrow straps, the cardigan tied loosely about her neck. His mouth felt like sandpaper. "Claudia," he managed to say with his heart thundering in his ears. 

"Hello, Damien," Claudia replied in her soft smooth voice. 

The way she said his name washed over him like rich honey. Damien wetted his dry lips before speaking again. "Why are you here?" he asked. His heart felt like bursting. 

"I wanted to stop by," she said as she walked over to his desk. She sat down in the chair in front of him. She crossed her slender ankles and smoothed out the wrinkles in her skirt. Her eyes rose to his. "You look surprised to see me."

He was. It felt like he had been struck with a two by four to the gut. She had been his idea of the perfect woman as an adolescent, but she had been the prettiest girl in his graduating class. She seemed to be suited more for guys like his cousin, Miles, or even Jonathon, and Dominic. But she had chosen him. Even now, why she chose him, was still a mystery. "Yes, I'm surprised."

An angelic smile creased her rosy lips as she regarded him with some amusement. "Still talk in short clipped phrases around girls, Damien?"

A heated flush surged under his tan as he self-consciously ran his fingers under the collar of his shirt, and inadvertently loosening his tie. "I'm just shocked, that's all. I haven't seen you since…" he trailed off, unable to continue. He shifted his eyes away from hers and glanced outside the windows.

"Since I broke up with you," Claudia finished for him as she clasped her hands about her crossed knee. "There was no way I could avoid it," she stated with a sigh as she watched his features contort with various emotions. His eyes had always been too expressive when it came to girls. 

His heart wrenched with a painful jerk. Even now, she could still manage to tug on his heart. She had hurt him so bad, it had been hard for him to imagine it. For the weeks and months afterwards, it was agony. She had been the first and only girl that he had really given his heart to. There wasn't a look of greed in her eyes like he had seen in so many other girls'. There was that look of genuine warmth and caring in her deep blue eyes. It had drawn him in, sucked him into a vortex of happiness that he didn't know could exist. He fought to keep some of his inner turmoil from showing. He didn't like to show anyone just how much she hurt him inside. "That still doesn't explain why you're here," he said in a more modulated, more controlled voice. 

"I wanted to talk to you about my actions, about why I broke it off."

Aquamarine eyes widened a little before sliding away from her gaze. "Really?" he wheezed. He felt a slight buzzing in his brain, a sign that a migraine was impending. 

"Really," she replied as she stood and walked around his desk and leaned against the edge of it, next to his arm. "I would think that you would want one."

Damien's eyes slid back up to hers as she looked down on him. The familiar scent of her gloxinia perfume tickled his nose and flooded his brain with memories that he didn't want to think about right now. But they came in stark clarity, racing through his mind anyway. Coming home from a date with her and still being able to smell her on his clothes, smelling it against the side of her neck when he would kiss her there, and smelling it all over her body the first time he made love to her and times after. She was the only one that he went that far with, otherwise, he had never thought of touching another woman like that, except for recently. Except for Angelina. But he had never thought of Claudia with the all-consuming lust, the hot passion, like he did the irksome and fiery red head he called an assistant. "I always kind of wondered," he said as he pushed himself out of his chair. He had to put space between them. Her presence was too much for him to handle with the buzzing in his brain becoming a dull pounding. 

Claudia's eyes followed him over to the window. His back was to her. She knew he was uncomfortable with her being here. It was apparent in his eyes, in his voice, and in his actions. "You couldn't give me enough then," she stated as she watched both his hands slide to the back of his neck and up through his hair. "It wasn't because I didn't love you. It was just that I needed more from you."

He turned to face her. "You needed more from me? I gave you everything that I was," he said incredulously. 

"You tried to give me all that you were, but I didn't want it to be a strain for you to do and it was. I could see it mirrored on your face. You couldn't hide it. I knew you loved me, but you loved your work too."

Damien stared at her, drinking her in as she sat, perched on the end of his desk. The straps of her heeled sandals, crisscrossed around her trim ankles. "If you loved me as much as you said you did, you would've stayed. You wouldn't have…" he trailed off, before he turned around again and looked out at the bay in the distance.

"Hurt you," Claudia finished as she stood up and went over to him. She placed a hand on his shoulder. "I didn't want to, but I couldn't be second to your work. You loved me, but if you had a choice, you would have chosen work over me."

"That's not true," he said as he turned to look at her. The warmth of her hand was seeping through the material of his pale green dress shirt. The light hit her eyes, making them sparkle. 

"Is it?" she asked as she looked up into his clear aquamarine eyes. 

He looked down at the manicured nails resting on the fabric of his shirt before raising them back to hers. She was so close and her perfume was drowning and intoxicating his senses. "Yes."

Claudia returned his look. They were so close that she could see her reflection in them. 

Outside the office, Angelina returned from her errands, licking her fingers from the donuts she snitched from the mailroom and the security offices. She sat down on the edge of Jeanette's desk and handed her the snack. "Here you go. Eat up."

Jeanette gave her a thankful smile and took a bite of the treat. "Thanks. I needed it."

"You look it. What's been going on since I was…"she trailed off as an angry looking Donavon Barton slammed into the main office, where they were, and threw open the door behind Jeanette's desk, which was Vaughn's office, and that door was slammed as well. Angelina blinked. "Did I miss something?"

"I don't know," Jeanette, replied, her eyes still wide. 

Angelina got up and went over to the closed door, pressing her ear against it. She jumped back when the door rattled. Loudly. "Oh dear, that does not sound good." There was some shouting, but it was coming from Donavon, in Spanish. Vaughn was answering back in the same language. There was the sound of something breaking again, making her cringe. "You better call Quatre up here," she said over her shoulder as she flinched as glass shattered on the other side of the door. 

"Right away," Jeanette said as she hurriedly made a call to Quatre's office. 

It didn't take long for Quatre to come bursting through the doors and go through the doors of his younger son's office. 

Angelina sighed and went back over to Jeanette's desk. "Well I didn't miss much, I guess." She glanced over at Damien's door. "I guess I should see what my boss wants," she said as she swallowed the remnants of the glazed donut and gave her fingers a final lick. 

"I don't think…" Jeanette started to say, but stopped. 

"What? You don't think what?"

"That you should go in there right now," Jeanette replied in a small voice. 

"What do you mean?" Angelina asked, perplexed. 

"He's…um…occupied," she supplied in a weak voice. 

"Nonsense, last time I saw him, all he was occupied with was papers," Angelina said with a snort as she walked over to the other side of the office. She paused, however when she heard voices on the other side. Her brow wrinkled a bit, but she shook her head and pushed the door open. Her lips parted in surprise as she took in the scene in front of her.

_A/N: Damn, it feels good to do a cliffhanger! Like I've said before, the throwing of tantrums is allowed, strangling is of course, optional. Stay tuned for more! XOXO!  _


	7. Damien and the Truth About Angelina

__

Disclaimer: I don't own them except for the kids!

****

The Perfect Temptation, Part 7

Angelina didn't think her eyes could go that wide. The back of them began to burn since she had ceased blinking. Her mouth went dry. Her eyes went to the slender hand touching his face and the one covering it. Their faces were so close and there was also that look in his clear aquamarine eyes when he had been looking down into the upturned face of the pretty looking brunette. She felt her stomach clench because she knew exactly whom the woman was and what she had meant to him. She opened her mouth to say speak, but no words came out. 

Damien looked at Angelina with the same wide-eyed expression. He blinked, almost missing the emotion he saw flicker in her silvery eyes. He had been so entranced by the warmth of Claudia's hand on his face and the entreating look in her eyes, that he hadn't heard the door open. He had heard her gasp though and the abruptness in which she stopped it. He could feel the softness and the smoothness of the skin under his palm. He hadn't realized that he had reached for it. It fell away, slowly down to his side. He took a step back and blinked again. He could feel pressure building up behind his eyes as his migraine began to strengthen. "Angelina," he wheezed. 

Her eyes bounced back to his after she had scrutinized the woman next to him. There was confusion now written in them. His voice sounded unnatural to her ears. She closed her eyes and shook her head, but didn't say anything. She turned on her heel and quietly left the office, shutting the door behind her with a soft click. There was roaring in her ears as blood rushed through. Her heart felt like it stopped beating and her breathing sounded incredibly loud to her ears. She glanced over at Jeanette, who passed her a weak and sympathetic smile. She closed her eyes again, willing whatever pain she was beginning to feel. With a shaky breath and a mantra in her head, telling her not to cry, she hurriedly left the office without a word. 

The clicking of the door closing made him jump. He stared at the polished wood, still in shock by the look that had passed over her features. The way that her coppery hair had spilled over her back as she turned replayed itself in slow motion in the back of his eyes. 

Claudia looked towards the door and back at him. She had been momentarily surprised when she felt his handclasp over her own, but she was even more surprised by the kind of reaction he was having to the woman that had just left his office. She didn't understand what was going on and why he was looking so distressed. The young redhead had looked much the same way. "Damien, who was she?"

He snapped his eyes back to her deep blue ones. Damien shook himself out of his stupor. He raked his teeth over his lower lip. "Angelina, my assistant," he replied in a faint voice. Guilt rose up inside of him. He couldn't even begin to explain why, but he wanted desperately to go after Angelina and tell her it wasn't what it looked like. The thought was so foreign to him since he had imagined thousands of ways to tell her off since the day he met her. "She's uh…the daughter of an old friend of the family…" he said as he rubbed the heels of his hands in his eyes. Intense pounding was beginning to start behind his eyes as the migraine continued to build. 

"I see," she said as she watched his aquamarine eyes cast another look at the door. "And what does she mean to you?"  


He cast another look at her. "Huh?"

"That girl. Angelina."

"What about her?"

"Does she mean something to you?"

Her question stunned him. He didn't know how to answer that because even he wasn't sure. There were times he felt like strangling Angelina within an inch of her life, telling her off, or kissing her mindless. And most times it was a combination of all of them. When she had confronted him about what he felt, he denied it, but it was true. He did feel something for her, but he didn't know what it was or how he actually began to feel something towards the very irritating, but very intriguing redhead. "She's just my assistant," he said, feeling it expedient to not answer the question in a direct manner. 

Claudia arched a finely shaped brow at him. "And that's all?" 

"Yes, she's just a daughter of a family friend, who's visiting for awhile. She's like a sister," Damien replied, knowing it was a lie since the feelings he had felt towards Angelina were anything but brotherly. 

"Then why did she look so upset?"

"Umm…I couldn't really tell you. It could be any number of things I suppose."

"Does she have a crush on you or something?"

That question had him at a loss. What Angelina felt for him, he was certain it was more than some crush. A lot more. The look he saw cross her eyes told him that much. "I don't know. I haven't really seen her since she was a little girl in pigtails. The Maxwell boys were closer to her than I ever was."

A slight smile crossed her lips as she walked towards him. She stood directly in front of him. "I guess I should be glad for not having any competition. She's very pretty."

"Who?" Damien asked, caught off guard by her first remark. 

"Angelina. A lusty sort of beauty that guys can't seem to ignore. I don't think you've ignored that fact," Claudia pointed out as she looked up at him. 

"I've noticed that she's attractive, yes. I would have to be blind not to, but she's not my type," he said as he struggled not to get lost in her eyes. 

"Am I more your type?"

"…Yes…I suppose you could say that…" he stuttered as a blush crept up his cheeks from the delighted smile that touched her lips. He took a step back. 

She noticed. She thought it was cute the way soft color flooded his face. Claudia knew she had a very strong effect on him or else he wouldn't be trying to get away from her. She had loved him a great deal, but she wanted him all to herself and the fact that he was the eldest heir to the vast Winner Empire made it harder for him to concentrate solely on her. She liked the lavish attention he would give her when he wasn't thinking of the business, but it didn't stay that way for long. She wanted it all the time. She needed him to focus on her and nothing else. "Damien, what would you say if I were to kiss you right now?"

He took several more steps back until he hit the edge of his desk. "I don't know. It wouldn't be wise to tell you the truth," he said, feeling his face grow hotter. Part of him wanted to kiss her again and feel her moist supple lips conform and part against his. But the other part of him was telling him he should go after Angelina. "Could I get back to you on that?" 

Claudia smirked this time from his question. "Why Damien, don't you want me to?"

His knuckles turned white as they clenched the edge of his desk. She was standing between him and the door. He would hate to admit it, but he was weak when it came to her. Part of him was still in love with her despite the fact that she had hurt him so much. 

When he didn't answer she walked towards him until she was standing in front of him. "I've missed you kissing me. It won't take but a second and it will be just like old times."

Damien closed his eyes. One second was a second too long. If he kissed her, he would lose to that part of him that wanted to so desperately. He had to make a choice between kissing her and going after Angelina. What was more important to him? A war was being waged within him. 

When he still did not answer, she decided to take matters into her own hands. She slid her hands across his jaw, cradling his face between her hands as she stood on her toes. "It won't take but a second, I promise," she breathed. 

Her lips were so close; his own were aching just to feel them. 

"WHOA!"

Damien snapped his eyes open to the sound of the voice. They locked with the cobalt ones of Jonathon Maxwell. "J…Jonathon," he sputtered, as he slid out of Claudia's hold on him. "What brings you here?"

Jonathon arched a brow. "I came by to see if Vaughn had that order done. He said he would fax it to me, but it seems like your brother is having other problems when I saw him leave the office with an ice pack on his nose and some hellish looking bruises under both his eyes. I'm guessing his nose met with someone's fist. So, I came to see you instead." His eyes darted over towards Claudia. "Hello, Claudia. It's been awhile," he said, smiling. It didn't reach his eyes. 

"Nice to see you too, Jonathon. Congratulations on your marriage to Leigh," she replied with a small smile of her own. Those intense cobalt eyes of his always unnerved her. She felt like he was reading her thoughts, but it hadn't stopped her from thinking he was one of the most handsome guys she laid eyes on. She looked back at Damien, who had moved to a safer distance. She sighed. "I should be going. I'll see you later, Damien," she said as she met his eyes as she picked up her purse. She continued to gaze into the aquamarine until she passed Jonathon, who was watching her closely. She looked away as she closed the door behind her. She let out a frustrated snort. "Damn," she muttered as she left the office. 

Jonathon turned back to look at Damien. "All right, now that she's gone, could you tell me what I walked in on?"

"I honestly couldn't tell you," Damien moaned as he slid back into his chair, rubbing his temples with his index fingers. The migraine was almost at full strength. His eardrums felt like bursting from the pressure. "I don't know, I don't know," he moaned again. 

"Does the reason I saw Angelina speeding out of the parking lot in a way that would put my sister to shame, have anything to do with Claudia being here?"

Damien twitched and didn't say anything. 

"I'll take that as a yes," Jonathon sighed as he sat down in the chair in front of his friend's desk. He continued to stare at the blond. "Migraine bad?" he asked, knowing how bad they could get. 

"You have no idea," Damien replied as he lifted his eyes to Jonathon's. "It feels like my head's going to explode. Why of all days did I have to get one today?"

Jonathon shrugged. "You should tell me, since it looks like it's tied to Claudia and Angie."  


"She walked in. We weren't doing anything, but she was touching me and I was probably looking like a lovesick fool, and Angelina saw that," Damien explained. 

Jonathon's brow arched again. "You never cease to surprise me. Claudia ripped out your heart the worst way imaginable and yet you would be willing to kiss her anyway. Miles, Dominic, and I used to debate on the exact reason she picked you. It was either she wanted your money or she just wanted in your pants. We finally agreed on the latter since she comes from a family with really old money and she wouldn't need yours. And we all found out that you did fool around with her," he said as he pointed a finger at him, "So we were right."

Damien's face flooded with heat. "Claudia was not like that," he snapped. 

"Oh come on, Damien, don't be stupid! She had you pegged since our sophomore year. She may look like a refined lady, but she had an agenda when it came to you getting into bed with her. I heard her whispering about it in the math class that I shared with her," Jonathon pointed out with exasperation. 

"I didn't even date her until our senior year!"

"Well she was planning on it since our sophomore year! She's as calculating and scheming as they come. I should know, I dated girls like her, but she took the cake. I never liked her and I think I intimidated her because I knew what she was up to."

"You're too jaded about women."

"And you're too naïve."

"I am not naïve!"

"You are. You hardly dated anyone as much as the three of us tried to get you to. You would always, calmly push those glasses of yours back on your nose, and say no, you were too busy and girls weren't that important to you. You've always been that way."

Damien scowled from Jonathon's observations. "I'm in no mood for this."

"I can see that too. You look like hell."

"You talk too much and you don't exercise tact."

"More tact than my dear older brother, who tends to put his foot in his mouth, which has recently put him in the dog house with his wife for insulting her sister. But I'm the one with tact, which you should be glad that I possess. I could've said that Claudia was a slut, hiding under that polished ladylike veneer and that you deserve much better then her. I could also say you shouldn't be a wimp and let her walk all over you."

Damien's scowl grew deeper. "You're being a pain in the ass."

"It's my job, considering what Angelina saw, made her more than upset. And I suggest to you, is to go after her," Jonathon said with some warning in his tone. "That girl is close enough to be family to me, so it's my job to look out for her. So, I want you to talk to her before I make whatever happened to your brother look like a nothing once I get through with you. I don't want to have to beat the daylights out of you for upsetting her when she obviously likes you as much as she does. You should be flattered that a girl wants you just for you and nothing else."

"She wants sex from me, that's all that she wants."

Jonathon frowned. "I don't think so. I know her a lot better than you do."

"So, you condone the way she throws herself at me?"

"She feels like it's the only way she can. She's not what she seems, believe me. There's a lot about her that you don't know."

"And what would that be?"

"That Howard and her mother have been divorced since she was ten. She lived in the shadow of her mother until she turned eighteen and went to live with him full time. Her mother is an extraordinarily beautiful woman, and being the less than perfect looking adolescent daughter of a former beauty queen, does things to you as a young girl especially. You should ask her the rest. There's a lot more to her than meets the eye. She's had a rough time and I don't want to see her hurt. Chris and David would say the same thing," Jonathon explained as he stood up and braced his hands on the edge of the desk. "And you should definitely get Claudia out of your life quick, before I do it for you and I'm not half as nice as you are."

Pale brows drew in over his aquamarine eyes, despite that it made his head throb even more. He knew that Jonathon meant what he said. He adored women and messing with any of the ones that they were both raised with, was tantamount to a death sentence. "What am I supposed to tell her when I don't even know what's going on?"

"You know what's going on. Claudia is playing you like a yo-yo and deep down you know that's exactly what she's doing. Don't let your past feelings for her ruin whatever you have with Angie."

"There's nothing going on between Angelina and myself."

Jonathon snorted and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, right. You always were the king of denial. There's definitely something going on between you and Angie. If I can see it, so can everyone else around you."

Damien turned his head away from the penetrating cobalt eyes and looked out of the window towards the water. He knew Jonathon was right. If he could see it, so could everyone else. And in no way did he want to incur the wrath of the three Maxwell brothers by hurting someone they considered family. "I don't even know what to say."

"The truth. Tell her the truth and from experience, she will attempt to cover it up and brush it off like it's ok. Don't believe it for a second. She hides behind that "bad girl" image even more effectively than my sister does."

Damien couldn't help but snort softly. He rubbed his head again as it throbbed some more. He let out a sigh. "I'll go see if I can find her."

Jonathon smiled. "Good," he said as he turned. He looked back over his shoulder at his friend. "Tell your brother not to worry about those papers. I'll get them tomorrow since it looks like he's having a bad day." He left the office, whistling, and hoping his words would have the desired effect. 

Damien rested his head on the edge of his desk. "How am I suppose to tell her anything when I have absolutely no idea where she'd go?"

******************************************************************************

Angelina climbed up over the edge of the rocks, ignoring the fact that they were scratching her palms and the soles of her feet. Waves crashed nearby, spraying her with salty water. This was the same place she knew Jonathon to come to when he was upset. The water splattered against her legs and the hem of her skirt, drying to a salty stickiness as the sun slowly dried them. Similar tracks had formed down the smoothness of her cheeks despite her best efforts to hold them back. She sat down on the topmost rock and closed her eyes. All she could see was that gorgeous brunette with her hands on him, and the way that he was looking at her. 

"So that was Claudia. She was sure pretty," she whispered as she stared out at the water. "No wonder he'd prefer her. So polished, so refined looking, so ladylike…so like my mother…" she sniffed as she held back even more tears. "And so unlike me. Is there honestly something wrong with me?" she asked as she leaned forwards and looking into a puddle of water left by the waves. It mirrored her face as well as the cerulean blue sky above her. She turned her face and studied every angle. A frown crossed her lips. "No wonder he would prefer her over me. Coloring is all wrong, eyes too different, hair to bright…not one ladylike thing about me…no wonder he would think that I was some…whatever…" she trailed off, splashing her hand into the pool and breaking up her reflection. 

The wind tugged at her hair. She tugged out the pin that held in away from her face and let it fall freely about her. The pale lavender floral skirt fluttered about her thighs as she propped her chin up on her knees. She shivered slightly even though the day was already warm. She rubbed her hands up and down her bare arms, having left the matching lavender cardigan on the seat of Hilde's SUV. The somewhat revealing lavender tank conformed to her figure as the fine mist from the waves coated her with moisture. "Maybe Randy was right in saying that I shouldn't go after him. She did say that he preferred willowy brunettes with manners. But I like him too much and I've invested too much time in him to give up…but he's still in love with her. I can see it. It's so plain to see and it leaves me nowhere. Maybe what my mother said was right; maybe all I am good for is being a genius like my father and that no one will find me attractive because I didn't inherit my mother's magnificence. How can I compete with the radiant ex girlfriend that he still loves?" she whispered again as a tear slid down her cheek, only to be lost with the beads of water, already coating her face. 

__

A/N: Miserable, yes? I know, and you probably want to beat me with whatever you have handy. But don't worry, more will be coming soon. XOXO!! 


	8. In Search of the Real Angelina

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of them except for the kids!_

The Perfect Temptation, Part 8 

**__**

Damien pulled into the softly lit driveway of the Maxwell's house. He had spent the better part of Tuesday afternoon, trying to figure out what he was going to say to her. She hadn't come in the rest of the week, calling in sick. He found out that not having her around was very, very boring. He would be the last to admit it, but she seemed to make a room come alive with her presence and work seemed to go a lot faster when she was there. The picture that Jonathon had painted for him didn't gel with what he knew of her. It just didn't seem possible. And now, it was Friday evening. He had finally figured out what he had been going to say to her. It had taken a great deal of thought on his part. He climbed out of his car and walked through the back gate to the kitchen door. Dim light spilled from the windows and he could just barely catch the glow of the television through the closed curtains on the deck doors. He took a deep breath and knocked. "Courage here, Damien. You're definitely going to need it," he said under his breath as he waited.

Angelina sat curled up on couch with a blanket covering her bare legs, left bare by her boxers. She was alone since Hilde and Duo had gone out, and Donavon had carried Randy over his shoulder, saying that they would be at his house, where he could keep his eye on her. A slight smile touched her lips as she remembered the more than furious expression on her friend's face. "At least she doesn't have to worry about losing him," she sighed as she flipped to another channel. She paused for a moment and watched the sappy romantic flick. She closed her eyes and flipped the channel as her heart twisted a bit and her eyes felt teary. "Romance, who needs it?" she muttered under her breath. She pulled the sweatshirt she had snitched from Duo around her a little more. Since he was very much like a father to her, she loved and adored him in the same way, which meant practically carte blanche with his clothes. She continued to flip channels. "Good Lord, isn't there anything on?" Her head turned with a snap as she heard the knocking on the kitchen door. "Who could that be at this hour?" she wondered, somewhat miffed at the intrusion, as she pushed the heavy quilted blanket down her legs and went to answer the door. 

It felt like forever to him. He glanced down at his watch. It was a little past eleven. "You picked a great time, Damien. Really great," he snapped to himself as he tapped his booted foot on the step. The door swung open and revealed a very disheveled, very miserable, and very desirable looking Angelina. His tongue cleaved to the roof of his mouth. 

Her eyes widened several degrees. She hadn't gotten a great look at who it was, but she knew only family and friends came to the back door. Her heart leapt in her throat and her breath froze in her lungs. She stepped back and nearly slammed the door in his face, but determined not to let him see how much he had upset her. "Damien," she said, cool, calm, and collected. 

Her eyes betrayed the tone of her voice. All he could do was look at her. Wisps of her coppery hair curled down the sides of her neck. They looked soft and touchable. "Angelina," he said in a steady voice, belying his own feelings as she was. "Can I come in?"

"What do you want?"

"I need to talk to you…about the other day."

"There's nothing to talk about. I was sick."

Damien frowned at her level tone. He had to admit that she was good. Very good. "You don't look sick."

Angelina pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes at him. "Well, I was."

"Well, I don't buy it," he countered. "So, could you let me in?"

Knowing that he probably wouldn't go away, she sighed and stepped back. "Fine." 

"Thank you," he said as she closed and locked the door behind him. He turned to look at her as she pushed glasses back onto her nose. "You wear glasses?"

"I've worn glasses since I was six, so stop staring. I wear contacts during the day," she snapped as she brushed past him. 

He let out a sigh as she retreated back to the family room. He followed her and was greeted by both Lucky and Noelle, who licked his hands before returning to their oversize doggie bed in front of the fireplace. He didn't need to be an empath to feel the hostility radiating from her. It was in the inflection of her words and her body language. Right now, her arms were crossed in front of her chest as she stood by the fireplace, leaning against the dull red brick. "I didn't mean to stare, Angelina. I've never seen you wear glasses."

She closed her eyes and shook her head. "Like you would care." She crossed her right ankle behind her left. 

He opened his mouth, but he slowly closed it. This was not going well. "Look, I really think we should…"

"There's nothing to talk about. I'm sorry I walked in on you and your…whatever," she said with a careless wave of her hand, "but I got sick. So you have nothing to explain."

"Angelina…"

"Damien, there's really nothing to talk about. So why don't you just drop it?"

"But…"

"There's nothing to talk about…but tell me one thing, was that Claudia?"

"Yes, that was Claudia," he replied as he looked up into her eyes. 

Angelina titled her head to one side as she felt her stomach drop. Those crystalline aquamarine eyes were scrutinizing her carefully. "You're going to let you hurt you again?"

"Why would I let her do that?" he asked, surprised by her question. 

"Because you looked like you wanted her back with the way that you were looking at her and touching her. It would be a stupid thing to do on your part."

Now his eyes narrowed the tiniest bit. "I never said that I wanted her back."

"No, but you looked it. And a look can speak a thousand words."

"The look meant nothing."

"But you still feel something for her?"

He didn't answer. 

"I prove my point. You're still hopelessly in love with her and you know she'll do the same thing to you as she did last time…whatever that was…leaving you brokenhearted and feeling pretty used for being a total idiot when it comes to her."

Damien's brow furrowed. Jonathon didn't tell him about her sharp tongue. He knew she was a smart mouth, but he had no idea that she could get as nasty as she was being right now. _"There's a lot that you don't know about her." _He weighed his words carefully before he answered her back, "I do feel something, yes…but it doesn't mean that I want her back. I know what she's capable of."

"Do you? Do you know how manipulative, how callous, and cruel a woman can be? Just because the outside looks good, doesn't mean the inside is the same way. She's definitely the kind of woman that will rip out your heart if you let her. You can never trust a purely beautiful woman."

"So, I guess that would mean I couldn't trust you?"  
  


She regarded him with wary eyes. "You probably could, but I'm not a beautiful woman."

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."

"I've heard that before," she snorted. "That's not true and furthermore, the person that made that up that little proverb, obviously wanted to lie about what they were looking at and didn't want to hurt that person's feelings. It's just a silly…"

"You are beautiful."

"…Old saying to make someone feel better about themselves even though they're…" she trailed off when she realized what he'd just said. Her eyes shot back to his. "What did you say?"

"I said that you are beautiful," he repeated as he stared into her widened, silver eyes. "And I meant it."

She felt like her heart stopped beating. Never in a million years did she think she would hear him say that. He was gazing directly into her eyes and she could see the sheen of honesty in them. He wasn't lying and it made her blood warm, and her toes curl. 

A corner of his mouth tilted up a bit as he took in her shocked expression. Her pert pink lips were parted ever so slightly and her eyes stared, unblinking, at him. "I may be shy around girls, but I do know a beautiful woman when I see one. And you can trust women that possess it, but they also have something that glows within them as well to make them stand out in both. You're very attractive and I'm not afraid to admit that."

"You couldn't possibly mean that," she said finally, hiding the pleased feeling that coursed through her from his words. "Besides, didn't you say that I was one of those women you can't trust?"

Damien raked a hand through his hair. "I did say that, and I do say things I don't mean just to cover up what I'm really thinking. I've worked in the business world too long, where people don't say what they really mean. I'm used to that…so you don't have to take everything I say at face value."

"So, do are you going to deny that you would've kissed Claudia if I had not interrupted you?" she asked pointedly. 

"I don't know…probably not…but you're right when you say that I have strong feelings for her."

"Then why did you come over here?"

"I wanted to talk to you about your reaction."

Angelina blanched slightly. "I was shocked, yes, but that was my only reaction," she bluffed. 

"Liar."

"What?" she asked, snapping her eyes back to his face. 

"You're lying. It did upset you more than you're letting on. I saw a look cross your face, which indicated otherwise. And I'm still getting that hostile vibe from you."

She shook her head negatively. "I did no such thing."

"Then you don't care anything about me?"

Rattled by his question, she raked her teeth over her bottom lip. She didn't answer. 

"Well do you or don't you? You seem to have no trouble in admitting to throwing yourself at me," he stated. 

"I just want to see your reactions, I like seeing you flustered. That has nothing to do with what I feel for you," she replied, shaking her head again. 

"You're still lying," he said softly. "Didn't you say that I was attracted to you, but you said I didn't want to admit it?"

"…No…I don't know…"

"You did say it. Why are you the one covering it up now?"

"I'm not!"

"You are."

Angelina gave him her back. His words were disturbing. She didn't know he had seen that much, that he had been more than just a simple conquest. She was beginning to feel something stronger than just like towards him and when she saw Claudia, she hated the feeling that coursed through her. She didn't want to feel that much towards him. Deep down, she wanted to tell him things about herself that she hadn't even told the Maxwell kids. But she was too scared to open up and tell him those things. Jonathon had pried some of those things out of her, but he was always able to do that with her. He seemed to inspire someone to confide in him, especially girls. And she felt that Damien was the same way, but she couldn't seem to make herself. She found it easy to cover it up by being vivacious and flirty. "Ok, I admit that you're very attractive, in a boyish sort of way. You have a sexy smile, which I wouldn't mind tasting, but you are just a sexual attraction for me," she lied as she turned and faced him, looking him straight in the eye. 

Damien arched a brow. She had just covered it up, just like Jonathon said she did and would. He crossed the room towards her and looked down at her. "You're hiding behind a mask as I do, aren't you? This isn't the real Angelina."

A soundless gasp escaped her lips as she tilted her head back to look at him. 

"I'm right, aren't I? This is just an act to cover up what's inside."

"I don't have anything to hide."

"You do and you are," he said gently as he grasped her chin between his fingers so she couldn't turn away from him. 

Stunned and shocked by what was happening. Electrical charges were shooting through her body from the contact of his fingers on her face. She wanted to pull away, but she couldn't, finding herself trapped between him and the wall of the fireplace. His fingers felt warm on her skin. "I don't have anything to hide," she said faintly. "What you see is what you get."

"I don't think so," he countered again, determined to see what she hid behind that overconfident, overtly flirtatious façade of hers. "What are you so afraid of, Angelina?"

Angelina closed her eyes from his since they were searching hers carefully. Her heart was pounding hard against her ribs. The only sound she could hear was their breathing in the quiet room since she had muted the television when she went to answer the door. Rolling her lips inward, she opened her eyes again to meet his. "I'm afraid of nothing."

"Then tell me."

"There's nothing to tell."

Damien sighed. She was being difficult on purpose. He wished he were better with girls like Miles and his brother seemed to be. They would know exactly what to say in this type of situation. He swallowed. He had to at least try something, anything, to gain some shred of her true self. He lifted her chin higher and lowered his head closer to hers until their noses barely touched. "Yes, there is something for you to tell. Tell me something, anything. Please…"

She blinked her eyes into focus as those eyes of his penetrated hers. She could feel his breath brushing against her lips, making them tingle. He sounded so sincere and so caring. It was making the resistance that she had built up over the years melt. She ran her tongue over her dry lips before she let out a deep sigh. "My…mother…said that no…one would want me…for my looks…just my brains…she said I was not…too much to look at…"

He could hear the painful inflection in her words. It made him feel angry that her mother would say something like that. "Why did she say that?"

"Who knows? Maybe because I loved my dad more than her…because she hated looking at something she created, that clearly was not going to look as beautiful as her. She didn't expect anything less than perfection…and I was far from perfect…"

He could see the tears glistening in her eyes. He felt a slight twinge in the region of his heart. He was shocked by his own reaction to what she was saying. He had wanted to dislike her, despise her for shamelessly throwing herself at him at every turn. He wanted so badly some days to make her disappear from his life, so he could go back to his peaceful one. But her words, never in a million years did he think what her own mother had said to her, would weaken his own resolve towards her and change what he felt towards her. He stroked her chin softly. "Your mother must have been jealous of you because you are much more attractive then her…"

Angelina couldn't believe what she was hearing from him. Of course, it was difficult to think coherent thoughts with him so close, but he sounded so genuine. Part of her wanted to open up and tell him everything, every little detail. His fingers grazing her chin had an intoxicating effect on her. She closed her eyes again. "You're comparing an average girl with a former model and beauty queen. There is no way you could say that I'm nicer looking than my mother."

"I've seen pictures and you're much prettier than she is. Why do you deny the fact that you're an attractive woman?"

"Because when you're told as often as I was, that I would never look like her, one tends to think less of them," she mumbled as she twisted her chin out of his grip. "And I can't believe you're saying this since you couldn't stand me from the moment I met you."

His lips tightened into a thin line as he then frowned. 

"I'm right, aren't I?" she hissed as she managed to slide away from him and put a distance between them. "I was no more than some thorn in your side because you hated fast women like me. I still went after you even though you would yell at me to back off. So, I can't believe a word you're saying."  
  


"Angelina, I already told you there are a lot of things that I say that I…"

"Don't mean," she finished for him in a bitter tone. "Well it's a little late for that now. I saw what you really wanted and you couldn't make that any clearer than shoving her in my face. She's what you want even though she'll tear your heart out."

"I don't want her!"

"You do! Don't deny it! You would take her back in a heartbeat!"

Damien gritted his teeth. "Well at least I wouldn't have to put up with this crap I get from you!"

Angelina blanched visibly, but quickly recovered. "The crap you get from me is probably nothing compared what she put you through. I've already seen the pain in your eyes when I asked you about her the first time, so it's no skin off of my nose if you want her back. She's a bad seed and you know it. You just don't want to admit the fact that the woman you love is less than perfect and God forbid that she isn't!"

He turned his head away from her. "She may have hurt me, but don't disparage her because she did."

Her mouth fell open. "My God! You are so blind when it comes to her! So incapable of believing that a person that is that perfect! Newsflash! An apple that shiny has to have a worm inside!"

"Well you think you're the perfect temptation, don't you? You flaunt your sexuality constantly, hoping I'll fall into your trap! Well newsflash for you, sweetheart, I don't like women like you, period! You just want to see how many men can want you before you drop them like a bad habit! I'm not swayed by your act at all! And some day it's going to come back and smack you in the ass and you're going to regret being a tease from hell! Furthermore, you'll get bunches of "I told you so" for your own reckless behavior! No one will want you because of it!" 

This time, she flinched and snapped her lips shut. Her eyes met his, having turned to stormy silver. "Then there isn't any more for us to say, is there?" she asked in a cold voice. 

Damien saw the shuddering of her body as the enormity of what he had just snapped at her, hit him. "Angelina, I…"

"Just leave. You seemed to tell me off just like you wanted to since I met you. You gained the courage to do so. I'm impressed. You flatter me one minute and you stick a knife in my back in the next. You are a piece of work, Damien Winner. You were right, when you said that you never say what you mean, I know now never to believe a word you say. Now, get out before I make you."

He stared at her, angry with himself for saying what he said to her, and angry with her for bringing out the worst in him. "Fine," he said tersely as he stalked past her to the back door, slamming it behind him. Once he climbed into his car, he muttered several expletives in Arabian and than in Spanish. "Shit," he muttered under his breath as he looked back towards the house. "You really knew what to say to her, didn't you, Damien. You told her off just like you wanted to," he said, his tone acid. But the pleasure he had expected to feel from it, left an acrid taste in his mouth. 

Angelina held herself rigid, pushing her tears down, deep inside of her. "You will not cry over him! He's not worth your tears," she berated as she sat back down on the couch. Her mother's words rang in her ears as she pressed her fingers against her temples. "_You'll never get a man if you don't flaunt the little sexuality you have, Angelina…You're looks leave a lot to be desired…No man will want you for your looks, just your mind, since you have nothing to offer in that department…Why do you bother trying to enhance your looks? You'll never be pretty that way either…" _"Stop it, stop it, stop it," she moaned as she pushed the heels of her hands into her eyes. "Thank you, Damien for making me feel worthless, just like my mother," she said in a soft, flat tone before wrapping herself back up in the blanket to ward off the chill that entered her heart and soul. 

_A/N: What do you think? I know I should be horsewhipped for making characters miserable, but hey, I can't help it! I bet some of you wish you could reach through the screen and strangle me. So until next time! XOXO!!_


	9. Guilt, Remorse, and Sadness

_Disclaimer: I don't own them except for the kids!_

The Perfect Temptation, Part 9 

**__**

Sweat poured off of his brow as he stared at the other end of the court. The tennis ball machine was gearing up on high like he had set it. His shirt lay discarded on the clay, wet from several hours of exertion. He twirled the racket in his hand once, before getting into position. The sun beat unrelenting on his back, deepening his tan. The ball came flying towards him at a hundred miles an hour. Damien slammed his racket against it, sending back across the court to ricochet off of the chain link fence with an audible rattle. He hammered the rest of them in the same direction, making a racket in the process. A few managed to hit him, stinging blows against his flesh, but he didn't care. He felt like it was just punishment for his actions towards Angelina the two evenings before. "For being a complete asshole," he muttered under his breath as he pounded several more of the tennis balls across the court. 

"Off," he called out to the machine, making it whir faintly as it clicked off. He walked back over to the bench and dropped down onto it. His hair hung in damp chunks on his head and more sweat glistened on his skin. His muscles ached from the abuse he was putting them through, but he felt like he deserved it. Raking both hands through his hair, he stared down at the red clay under his shoes. All he could see was her face. She was haunting him even with his eyes open. "Why did I have to say those things? I always end up putting my foot in my mouth. I can handle business conversations, but when it comes to conversations with women, I screw it up," he muttered, his tone very self-deprecating. "It's open mouth, insert foot, Damien Winner." He leaned back against the chain link behind him, not caring if the metal bit into his flesh. He picked up a water bottle and dumped it over his head. Water rained down over his hot face and neck. However, it didn't alleviate the burning inside of him. It was guilt. Remorse. A whole host of other things he couldn't begin to explain. 

"Dammit," he cursed again as he ran one hand over the back of his neck. Muscles stretched and contorted from the action. Many would be surprised of his current appearance. Lacking the heavier build of his cousins, his slimmer frame didn't make him any less strong then them. He was an inch or to shorter than the six foot two Dominic and half an inch shorter than his own brother. Jet was the only one shorter than him. His strength when he was angry enough was unprecedented. Jonathon had come into contact with it once, walking away with a broken nose. He sighed again and stood up, ready to put himself through more physical abuse. He called for the machine to turn on again, but at a faster speed. They zipped across the net like wildfire. His muscles were strongly protesting against his rough treatment of them. But it didn't matter. Nothing mattered now. 

Quatre gazed through the fence at his son, while playing a game, he himself despised with a passion. But Cathy played and Quatrina and Mira did as will. Vaughn and Damien only picked up a racket was when they were pissed with the other or in Damien's case, at himself. With a soft sigh, he pushed the gate open and stepped inside the enclosed court. "Damien, he called quietly. 

The oldest Winner heir turned and looked at his father through the sweat running down into his eyes. "I needed to get some frustrations out," he replied shortly as he called the machine to halt once again. "I needed the exercise too since I spend a lot of time behind a desk."

"I hardly think that you need to exercise, since you're about as fit as anyone else is," Quatre answered back as he sat down on the bench. "But I know you've been in a bad mood lately just as your brother has, and coincidentally, it's due to women."

Damien frowned as he sat beside his father. "That's always been my problem and right now, it's two of them. Which makes it ten times worse considering who they are." 

"One is Claudia and the other is Angelina."

A shocked look replaced his frown. "How did you know that?"

"I feel Angelina's frustrations and her pain, knowing it has something to do with you. Claudia is a lucky guess," Quatre replied as he watched his son's face. "What's going on?"

"Like you need to ask," Damien said with a dry look. "Let's just say it's your typical love triangle. Angelina is at one corner, Claudia at the other…and I am their objective. And unfortunately for me, I can't make up my mind about one over the other. Claudia is the woman who ripped my heart out without a smidgen of conscience, and Angelina just likes to twist me into knots and tease me."

Quatre arched a brow. "I hope you wouldn't chose that girl that made you a zombie for three months. I wouldn't want to smack some sense into you. While she seems like such a nice girl, she isn't the one for you. She never was and I knew that. It was almost a blessing in disguise when she broke up with you."

"You knew that we were going to break up?" Damien couldn't believe he was hearing this. 

With a nod of his head, he confirmed his answer for his son. "Being perfect doesn't mean it's the best for you. I could sense flaws under the surface, I didn't know what they were, but I knew that you wouldn't end up with her. But there were sometimes I was a little worried that you were going to ask her to marry you."

"I think that's what Claudia wanted too, but I was too occupied and I knew she resented it. She hated anything that took me away from her. But I loved her and you know as well as anyone else, dad, once you're bitten by that particular emotion, you're blind to what goes on around you. I had considered marrying her, but before I really could make up my mind about it, she went and dumped me."

"I'm very glad you didn't. She just wasn't the one for you. There's someone out there that's much more suited for you."

"You're talking about Angelina, aren't you, dad?"

"Maybe I am."

Damien snorted. "She's hardly the right one for me. Her type scares the hell out of me." _"Plus she hates me at the moment anyway."_ "Brazen, bold, gutsy women are definitely not for me. They never were."

Quatre arched a brow. "She is who she is. Yes, Angelina might be brazen, bold, and gutsy, but she's a good girl at heart. She needs someone who will care for her and listen to her. Her mother wasn't the most delightful of mothers," Quatre added. "She was a beautiful woman, but she was like your Claudia. Perfect on the outside, but far from it on the inside."

  
"That's what I heard," Damien replied. "Jonathon told me some things about her. And I find myself believing what he said about her. I went to talk to her the other night about what she saw earlier in the week, and she said she didn't care. I knew enough about her to know that she was lying to me about something. She hid it and I got mad from some remark she made, then as usual, I opened my mouth and inserted my foot."

Quatre winced a little as a shot of pain raced through him, but he shook it off as it died away, but it didn't completely leave. He concentrated on his son in front of him. "What did you say to her?" he asked. 

"I more or less told her that I would pity the man that would have her."  
  


Quatre contemplated his son's words for a moment. He liked Angelina. She had always been a good little girl, but he had seen her living under the influence of her mother for years. It was hard to take sometimes. She had been quiet and cute little thing. She had glasses, braces, and scores of freckles across the bridge of her nose and under her eyes. And in her mother's eyes, unattractive and less than perfect, which to her was unacceptable. Then he saw her at eighteen, after not seeing her for four or five years, and was shocked at the transformation. She had grown out of the braces, wore contacts, and the freckles were gone. In her place was a very beautiful young woman, who was very intelligent and very vivacious, but she still saw herself as unattractive because of her mother. He knew what she hid underneath that mask. She was afraid of letting anyone in, not wanting anyone to see how insecure she really was, which he understood. And now, he knew how she was beginning to feel towards his oldest son, who had his own insecurities. He frowned as he glanced over at him. "That was not a wise thing to say to her."

Damien exploded. "Don't you think I know that? The shattered look on her face was enough to make me realize what I said! I couldn't take it back and the funny thing is, I feel horrible! I don't know why, but I do! And it's driving me insane! She drives me insane!"  
  


He didn't deign to comment after his son's outburst. He could see the intense frustration written on the nearly identical features, except for the stubborn jaw, which belonged to Cathy. He knew that Damien had tended to shy away from girls and always seemed to feel uncomfortable around them except for the ones he had known since childhood. But that changed as Randy and Veronica, grew older and bolder, and they were the only girls he tended to shy away from. Angelina was much like the both of them from what he saw. He tapped a few fingers on the bench, thinking of something to say to his son. "She drives you insane?" he finally asked, not knowing what else to ask.

"YES!" Damien shot off the bench and started pacing back and forth in front of his father. He shoved his hands through his hair, making it stick up between his fingers. "She delights in twisting me into knots, she makes me so mad some days that I just want to strangle her, scream at her, shake her, kis…" he bit off the rest of the word and glanced back at his father to see if he caught the slip. Both of his brows were arched up in amused question. "Shit," he muttered under his breath, knowing by that look, he had caught it. "She just drives me mad."

Quatre had to bite back the laughter at the expression on his son's face. "She makes you feel that much, does she?"

Damien didn't answer as he chewed on his lip. He turned away from his father. "I didn't mean that last part about the…you know…"

"About kissing Angelina? Oh, I think you do or else you wouldn't be denying it."

"I don't want to kiss her! I'm not denying anything."

With a sigh, Quatre stood and walked over to his son, placing a hand on his shoulder. "A small bit of advice, Damien. When a woman makes you feel like that, feel so many emotions at once, stirring them up inside you, it means you're interested. Don't be afraid of feeling like that because it's very normal. Just trust me," he said as he gave his son a smile and dropped his hand away. He turned and started to leave the court. 

His hands left his hair and fell to his sides. He stared after his father, contemplating what he said. "Dad?"

"Yes?" Quatre replied as he opened the gate, he looked over his shoulder. 

Damien looked his father in the eye. "Did mom make you feel like that?"

A smirk crossed Quatre's lips. "What do you think?" he asked before he turned away and left the court. 

Damien picked up his shirt and mopped his face with it. His brow was wrinkled in thought over his father's advice. He was also finding it a little hard to believe that his mother made his father feel like that too. He was afraid of what she made him feel. The feelings made his palms itch, his heart race, and his eyes follow her around and trek over her body when she was in sight. "Claudia never made me feel like that," he murmured as he sat back down again. He stared sightlessly at the other side of the court. Claudia had been his fantasy girl. She had been what he thought he wanted. Pretty, reserved, ladylike, and safe. She was safe because he didn't feel raging emotions when he was with her. He loved her, certainly, but never with an out of control passion. It was calm relationship. Even sleeping with her hadn't increased the feelings he had for her. He was ashamed to admit that the sex was good, it seemed to be lacking. And he didn't know what it was. 

"And Angelina?" he murmured as he dropped his eyes to the clay under his feet. She frightened him. Her boldness, her total lack of restraint, her fiery beauty, and independence shook him up inside. The thoughts he had about her sometimes were so heated, so sexually charged, that they made him flush with embarrassment because he had never had thoughts about Claudia in that manner. She was the opposite of his ex-lover. She made him feel passion and he could only imagine what making love to her would be like. "Making love? Where did that come from?" he asked out loud, puzzled that he would connect love with her. "I couldn't feel something like that for her, could I?" _"Well you won't find out if you could feel like that towards her because you acted like an ass and she won't talk to you. You said some pretty nasty things to her and she probably hates you. What you should do is go to her and apologize for being an ass in the first place." _He pressed the heel of his hands against his eyes. "I guess that's the only thing I can do at this point. I have to apologize to her," he said as he stood again, the image of her hurt face lingering in his mind. 

******************************************************************************

"Men suck."

"At the moment, I have to agree with you."

"Well at least you have a guy that loves you and treats you with respect."

"Still doesn't mean I can't think men suck."

"Randy, why are men such idiots? I mean, they say one thing and mean another," Angelina said crossly as she dropped the wrench onto the asphalt with a clatter.

"Because they're men. They can't think with their brains when a pretty woman is involved," Randy snorted as she pointed a brand new spark plug at her friend. She jerked her head in the direction of Donavon, who was in the office with David and Chris. "And Donavon is just as guilty of it as the rest of them. They can open their mouth and insert their big feet." 

A slightly amused look crossed Angelina's face. "I take it having a shadow is getting to you?"

"You have no fucking idea," Randy grumbled in reply as she leaned under the hood to replace the old spark plug. "I'm lucky I'm not tied to him now or having him hover over me like some damned ghost."

"Well, like I said before, at least you have someone. The one I thought I wanted is an asshole," Angelina said as she frowned and turned back to the car she was working on. 

Randy leaned up again and turned to look at her friend's back. "Damien has always been a chicken with women like us. Our boldness makes him cringe. I told you he would be a hopeless case, but you let your hormones get the better of you," she chided, wagging her grease stained finger. 

"Oh shut up! All I wanted to do was rile him up some, not marry him!"

"Honey, you wanted him flat on his back, begging you for more."

With her face flaming from Randy's insinuation, she turned to face her. "Well don't you want Donavon the same way? Don't you want him on his back, begging you for more?" Angelina shot back. 

Randy's face turned bright red. " Bitch," she growled, "don't shout it out! I would rather he not hear that!"

"So, you do admit it. The proud virgin that you are."

"You're a virgin too, Angie. Don't forget that. You flirt and tease just as I do."

Angelina crossed her arms and scowled at the other girl. "So, I do, but like you, I don't give it away. What man is going to want me in bed, especially not Damien."

]

"Oh, I think he wants you well enough. He's lusting after you and you know it. You don't believe him when he's denying it, so he doesn't believe that you didn't give a shit about Claudia. You like him very much, and it's more than just you, him, and a bed," Randy said pointedly. 

Angelina snorted and gave Randy her back. It was true when she had said that she cared about Damien and Claudia more than she let on. She liked him very much with that irritated look on his face when he would do paperwork. She found it amusing when he would rake his hands through his hair when he was reading something that obviously didn't sit well with him.  The flush that would rise to his cheeks when he thought she wasn't looking was also very cute. Or when he would so desperately try to cover up the intense heated look in those aquamarine eyes of his. Those looks of his sent chills through her. And she loved that smile of his. Although the other night had been painful since all she had thought about had been his words of him pitying the man that would want her. He had upset her so much, inflicting more damage to an already opened wound. She frowned. "I don't like him right now."

"I don't like Donavon right now either, but I'm not going to deny that I love him more than anything," Randy sighed as she raised her eyes to the ceiling. "Even if he spanked the hell out of me for messing around with Vaughn and getting Veronica all upset."

"Randy, he spanked you hard enough you couldn't sit down for almost twenty four hours."

"Yeah, added onto the spanking by my father. It didn't help the soreness already there."

"You deserved it," Angelina put mildly. 

Randy glared at the other girl's back. "I didn't deserve it twice in one day. He could've given me some time to heal," she said as she glanced over towards the office door behind her. Music was playing loud enough so they wouldn't be heard inside the office. "But no, Donavon came walking in and smacked the hell out of my ass for at least two minutes. And I knew Veronica got pleasure out of seeing me brought to heel at Victoria's birthday party. The bitch was trying not to laugh."

"She wasn't the only one trying not to laugh," Angelina snickered as she turned around to face Randy once again. 

"Screw you," Randy hissed. "But you were staring at Damien the entire night. Like he was at you when you weren't looking. He can't hide it as much as he tries, but what blows me away is what you implied about him saying to you the other night. He's not known to be that nasty. That title goes to his sister, Quatrina. My advice would be, is to back off. Let him have his space and sort his mind out. I will say this that ex of his helped fuck him up. She got in his brain and scrambled it because in his eyes, the cow is the perfect woman. He has to make a decision. You or her, and I guarantee it, he'll get migraines from it," Randy recommended. 

"Why would he chose her, when she hurt him as much as she did?"

"Because when it comes to that girl, he gets all wishy washy, and she walks all over him. I don't think he would be able to survive having his heart ripped out a second time."

Angelina frowned again. "But there's the possibility that he would go back to her. If he still loves her…of course," she said softly, a feeling of dread trickling through her. She didn't think she could stand it if he chose Claudia over her. Her psyche was held together by the most minute of strands. If one broke, she knew she would collapse. _"Let's just hope he doesn't chose her. I would even rather him not choosing either one of us. I think I could withstand that at least." _ She waved her hand. "Enough of this talk, let's talk about something else."

"Like what?" Randy questioned, not at all surprised by her friend's change in topic. 

"Like how much longer your beloved is going to tail you and watch everything you do"

"Probably when hell freezes over, but I'll tell you this," Randy said, wagging her finger again, "I will make him pay for making me where that shirt. As much as I hate to admit, I deserved that spanking, but not the shirt and the leash. I will definitely make him pay because payback can be a real bitch, and I'm the bitch that's going to give it to him," she finished with a growl. 

Angelina smirked, noticing that Donavon was standing behind Randy, with his arms crossed. 

"He's behind me, isn't he?" Randy asked, flinching."

"What's this about making me pay for the shirt and the leash?" Donavon drawled, more amused than annoyed. He was smirking. 

"Nothing," Randy replied, "Nothing at all, love."

"You said payback was a bitch, and you were going to be the one to do it," Donavon said, his smirk getting wider.

Angelina sighed and shook her head as Randy sputtered out more denials. She could tell that Donavon was enjoying his girlfriend's discomfiture. She sighed and turned back to the car she was working on. Tears filled her eyes as she thought of Damien. "Why did you say the things you said?" she whispered as she sniffed back the rest of her internal distress and went about her work.

A/N: I know it took me awhile, but it's here and I hope you enjoyed it. Miserable, isn't it? Stay tuned for more! XOXO!


	10. Confrontation: The Battle Begins

__

Disclaimer: I don't own them except for the kids!

****

The Perfect Temptation, Part 10

It was a busy day at the Maxwell Garage on Premier Street. Angelina scowled at the fan belt in her in her hand. 

"Keep on looking at it like that, the belt will burst into flame," Jonathon snickered as he observed her from the other side of the car he was working on. 

"This is brand new and whoever owns this car did something to it," she snapped as she glanced up at him. She looked back at the brand new Jaguar. She snorted in disgust. "This person does not know how to treat the damn car and appreciate what it's worth." 

"People that can afford these kinds of cars usually don't appreciate them. Plus, it's more likely some rich girl's car. It looks like a richies car," he said as he wiped his grease stained hands on the towel hanging out of the back pocket of his jeans. He walked around the back of it and looked at the license plate. "Yup, its a chick's car. The acronym says "Daddy's Girl."

Angelina rolled her eyes. "How apropos."

Grinning, Jonathon took the belt from her hand and studied it. "There's a tear in it. I don't know how this person managed to do it, but they did. They have to be pretty damn stupid," he commented as he handed it back to her. 

"Well, it has to be replaced. This car is barely a year old," she sighed as she picked up the brand new one she had gotten from storage in the back. "I better be well compensated for this dumb chick's thoughtlessness," she grumbled as she leaned under the hood again. 

Jonathon watched her. He was glad that she was showing some of her spirit. He wasn't happy with Damien at all and he didn't want to have to strangle his friend for a girl he considered family. He smiled a little as she quickly replaced it and shut the hood. 

"There all done," she announced as she gave the car a triumphant look. Fixing things took her mind off of her problems and she enjoyed doing them. She was as good as her father at putting things together, if not better. The job she had at the Maxwells' Garage fed her abilities. She glanced over at Jonathon, who was still watching her. She smiled at him. "Would you be a sweetheart and put it outside for me?"

"Anything for you, Angel," he teased as he chucked her under the chin and climbed into the champagne colored interior. 

Leaning through the window, she pressed a smacking kiss on his cheek. "Thank you."

"No problem," he replied as he grinned at her. He started up the car and backed it out. He parked it along the side where other finished cars sat with their numbered tags in the windshields. He climbed out and walked around it, making sure that there were no marks on it. He twirled the keys around his fingers until they clinked against his wedding ring. He glanced back at the open garage door, where Angelina was checking out another car. He was glad it kept her occupied and happy. He liked it better that way. It was nice to see her smile again. Then again, it was nice to see anyone smile these days considering what had been going on. The news of Veronica's miscarriage made him more apprehensive since Leigh only discovered that she was pregnant less than a week ago. He let out a long sigh as he leaned over to wipe away a smudge on the review mirror.

******************************************************************************

Claudia alighted from her father's car as he dropped her off to pick her car up. Between her manicured fingers she held his credit card that he gave her to pay for her car. Her heeled sandals clicked on the concrete as she walked towards the office of the Maxwell Garage. She paused and saw Jonathon Maxwell leaning over her car. With a complacent smile on her lips she walked over and stopped to watch him. He had been the one she would have loved to get her hands on. He had always intimidated her, making it clear that he didn't like her. She saw him as a challenge, but there had always been some other girl in his life. The two most notable ones were Morgan Valenti and Chang Leigh, the woman he was now married to. So, she had gone after Damien Winner. He had been her next choice. She sauntered over to the other side of the car and leaned forwards, bracing her elbows on the hood. "See anything wrong?" she asked. 

Jonathon raised his eyes to hers. He stood up straight and shoved his hands in the back pockets of his jeans. "No," he replied, his tone clipped. He disliked her immensely and he had always let her know it. Giving her a chilling look, he leaned against the car behind him. "What do you want?"

A smirk touched her lips as she leaned up as well. "I came to pick up my car," she replied, but her eyes flickered over him before returning to his icy cobalt ones, "among other things."

His mouth twitched. He wasn't stupid. He knew what she was insinuating. It then dawned on him that the Jaguar that Angelina had been working on was hers. "This car yours?"

"Yes, it was my birthday gift," Claudia replied as she walked around it, trailing her fingers on the metal and facing him. She braced her hands behind her on the hood as she leaned against it. 

Jonathon let out a derisive snort. "Figures that this car would belong to you. And by the way, Claudia, I'm married," he said as he tossed her the keys. He held up his left hand. "See. Married."

Eyeing the band on his ring finger, she arched her brow. "Don't flatter yourself," she said with a sniff. "Damien was much better than you."

"And more willing to be lead around the nose by you too, being the bitch that you are," he shot back. "All you did was make him miserable in the end and practically killing him in the process. I saw him afterwards, I know exactly how much he was in love with you and I couldn't help but pity him for it. How could he love a rotten whore like you?"

Her face flared with angry color. "How dare you!"

"Because I can. To you, I was one of those uncouth Maxwells that you looked down your snotty little nose at. Truth was, it practically rankled that I wanted nothing to do with you," he said, a malicious glint entering his eyes. "And it was because I saw you for the bitch you were. So, I'm going to say this once and only once, leave him alone. I'll be damned if you mess around with him a second time because if you do, I'll show you just how nasty I can get," he snarled as he leaned forwards and looking into her eyes. 

******************************************************************************

Angelina heard Jonathon raise his voice, making her wipe her hands on a towel that hung out the back pocket of her loose fitting cutoffs. She walked out and saw Jonathon with a deadly look on his face. It was directed towards Claudia. She sucked in a breath and started walking towards them. She could hear some of his words. She knew he could get particularly vicious towards someone he considered an enemy. "Jonathon, what's going on?" she asked as she reached them. 

Claudia's mouth hung open with furious shock. No one had ever talked to her like that before. Balling her hands into fists, she raised one to strike him when the copper haired girl she recognized as Damien's assistant, asked him a question. She narrowed her eyes at him instead. 

Jonathon turned and glanced at Angelina. "I'm taking care of something. Something I should have done a long time ago," he replied, his voice clipped. "You get that, Claudia," he growled, "You stay away from him."

Blinking her silver eyes, she turned them towards the shorter brunette, who looked ready to explode. "You don't have to do this, Jonathon," she said as she laid a hand on his arm. "I know why you're doing it."

His cobalt eyes softened a little as he looked back at her. "Yes, I do, Angelina. And I'm doing it because I want to."

Deep brown eyes bounced back and forth between them. The younger girl's look was imploring and grateful at the same time. Her mind flickered back to the day in Damien's office. The look reflected on her face and in those metallic eyes when she looked at her former lover. A thought struck her. This girl had a crush on Damien. "You don't stand a chance, red," she hissed. 

Angelina's eyes narrowed as she looked at Claudia. "I stand a better chance than you do, gold digger. He's not yours, nor will he ever be again. So why don't you go sink your hooks into some unfortunate sucker, who will over look that you're slut." 

She sucked in an outraged breath at the insult. "All I see in front of me is a slut. You aren't worthy of any man, least of all Damien. You're nothing of what he wants. He wants a lady and you're far from that."

Heat rushed to Angelina's face. "I wasn't the one who used him, claiming to love him. I told him exactly what I wanted from him. I don't have a hidden agenda. And perhaps I care for him a little more than you do, you snake. At least I haven't lied to him about who I am," she snarled as her own hands fisted at her sides. She felt like striking the older girl. 

Jonathon didn't say anything. He was closely watching Angelina's face. He was proud that she was holding herself together and giving as good as she got. She wasn't hesitant at all and she meant what she said too. Inside he was also laughing at Claudia. The other woman had a look of surprise in her eyes at the insults being slinged at her. He was silently rejoicing at those expressions. 

Ill-concealed dislike was written all over Claudia's classical features. Shooting daggers at Jonathon seemed to have no effect. A wicked grin was crossing his mouth. Her eyes returned to the girl in front of her. "And that's why he'll never want you. I'm everything he's ever wanted. You're not. Just watch and see, you brat, I'll get him back. No matter what the cost," she sneered as she turned on her heel and strutted towards the office with her head held high. "Let the little bitch think about that," she said smugly. 

Angelina's hands clenched even tighter, her nails digging into the tender flesh of her palms. "The gall of that…that…whore…" she sputtered, to infuriated to speak. "I'll kill her before I let her have him."

Jonathon grasped her hands and pulled them apart, used to doing so with Randy. "She's saying that just to get to you. Don't play her head games. She will ruin you like she did Damien. She has no conscience. She'll do it in a heartbeat for she means to have him now that she knows you want him. Claudia plays for blood and its yours, she's after," he explained as he turned her to face him. "You're best bet, Angel, is to go to him. I know you might be angry with him, but if you do want him, forgive him. Girls are not his forte. He's so inexperienced in that area of his life since it's always revolved around his family's business. And don't hide yourself from him. Don't make him put his foot in his mouth unnecessarily."

She scowled. "A day or two ago, Randy told me to leave him alone and let him come to his senses. Right now, I don't like him because of what he said about me. I don't know if I want him or not."

He bent down to her level and looked her in the eyes. "Don't be stupid. You want him. I know you do because I can see it in your eyes that you do. It's clear when you were going back and forth with Claudia that you do. Don't be stubborn. It only gets you hurt in the process. Trust me on this. I put myself through too much heartache because of my insecurities. I almost lost Leigh entirely. I don't want you to lose him because it's so obvious to me, that you care a great deal about the dope," he said gently. He pressed his finger against her lips when she went to protest. "I want to see you happy. And he can make you happy, like I know you could make him. But let him make the first move. He knows he made a mistake with you and he will come to you in the end. He's easy to guilt trip."

With a sigh, Angelina slumped her shoulders. "I know. But I how can I let him in? He…"

"I know he hurt you and it doesn't make me happy that he did, but don't throw away this opportunity. Don't shut him out," he said as he pressed a brotherly kiss on her forehead. "I know it's hard for you to open up, but you have to trust him. You can trust him. He's one of the most loyal and dedicated people I know. Open up to him and you will be surprised of what you'll find underneath."

She bent her head against his chest. She could hear the steady pounding of his heart against her forehead. "It makes me glad that I have someone like you looking out for me. It's kinda nice having a big brother."

He rubbed his hands up and down her arms. "No matter what, you can always count on me, or even David or Chris to be there for you. You're family. You're just like another little sister to us. We'll always try to protect you, just like we do for Randy."

"Thank you," she replied as she pressed her cheek against him and gave him a hug. 

"No problem," Jonathon said as he wrapped his arms around her to return the hug. 

Angelina closed her eyes against the comforting warmth of his chest. He was as close as a brother could be. She could confide in him and be herself. She didn't have to hide with him. She would have loved to been able to date him, but she was content in having him like this. In some strange way, she had always seen Jonathon as her knight in shining armor. With her eyes still closed, she thought of Damien. He was one of Jonathon's closest friends. Deep down, she wanted to go to him, but she was afraid. Afraid of what he could say. But she knew that he was hiding his own fears and anxieties behind that aloof façade of his. He was similar to her in some ways. Knowing that she wanted nothing more to forgive him. She cared that much about him, but there was no telling on when he would come around and if Claudia could possibly get to him first. She couldn't let the other girl win him back. In the back of her mind, he was more than just something to be won. It was him as a person. The person whose heart needed to be touched by someone who wasn't so scheming and calculating, needed someone gentle and understanding. And most of all, she needed his. She needed whatever warmth and understanding lay beneath the surface of his eyes. She wanted to be able to make him smile again and rebuild her shattered self-esteem and confidence. It was going to take all of her efforts to bring him around and all her courage to let him in to that deep dark part of her soul that she kept hidden from the light. 

A/N: I know it's a short chapter, but don't despair, there's more coming soon! XOXO!!


	11. Playing to Win

Disclaimer: I don't own them except for the kids!  
  


The Perfect Temptation, Part 11 

**__**

Damien's hands flew over the keyboard of his computer as he sat in his office that Monday. His light green silk tie was already loosened a bit as he held a bagel he had taken off of the sideboard that morning before he left the house between his teeth. The peach jelly he had quickly smeared on top of it before he left the house stuck to his upper lip. It was one of his favorites. It also reminded him of Randy when she would lean close and tease him. That scent followed her everywhere, just like the lime scent he associated with Angelina. The clean fresh smell would permeate the air whenever she was nearby, tickling his nose and slowly driving him insane. He squinted at the monitor, reading what he had just typed. He frowned around the bagel. _"I never was that good at apologizing," he thought as he reread what he wanted to attempt to say to Angelina. __"But just watch me screw this up too. I don't seem to pass up an occasion to stick my foot in my mouth. There's not a choice in this matter though. You have to do it. You were out of line and that's what's grating on you." _

He blinked. All he could see was that stricken expression on her face at their last encounter. He wanted so badly to erase that. The guilt from his words ate at him like acid. He could agree with Vaughn though. _"I am such a coward when it comes to women," he thought with a derisive snort, almost choking on the bagel in his mouth. He took it out and set in on the napkin on the edge of his desk. "Yeah, killing yourself will do a world of good, Damien," he muttered under his breath as he leaned forwards in his chair and started typing again. He didn't hear his door open. "I'm busy," he said, not looking up. _

"I can change that."

His eyes shot up to Claudia's as she leaned against the door. A smirk was touching her lips as she turned the lock on his door. His mind registered what she was wearing, a sheer white blouse with a short silky skirt in deep blue green. The shirt was sheer enough for her skin color to show through as well as the smooth outline of her bra. He swallowed hard and felt his palms sweat. "What are you doing here?" he asked, his voice faint. 

"That should be obvious, darling," Claudia drawled as she approached his desk. She braced her hands on it and leaned forwards, looking into his wide aquamarine eyes. "I want you."

Damien shot out of his chair and pushed his back against the wall. He eyed the door behind her for a moment before looking back at her. She was leaning forwards on his desk, her eyes glittering wickedly. He rolled his lips inwards and shook his head. "That doesn't answer my question," he said as he loosened his tie. 

Walking around his desk, she plucked the buttons from her blouse, one by one until a strip of skin showed between the folds. An amused smile touched her lips as he took several steps away. "Don't you want me, Damien?" she cooed as she shrugged her shoulders, letting the sheer material fall to the floor. She kicked it away. 

Aquamarine eyes went to the shirt on the floor of his office before raising them back to hers. "Would you please put your shirt back on and leave?" he pleaded, not at all ready to handle this situation. He hadn't thought of a viable way to get Claudia out of his life. He had been too busy trying to figure out a way to apologize to Angelina. He pulled his chair in front of him, blocking her path to him. "Please, Claudia, put your shirt back on?"

"You haven't answered my question yet? Don't you want me, because I most certainly want you," she said as she propped her hands on her hips and thrust out her breasts. 

Damien squeezed his eyes shut, wishing he didn't remember what she felt like, what she tasted like, what she sounded like when he made love to her. All that silky skin under his fingertips and those soft rosy lips that begged to be kissed, and that thick luxurious hair that would wrap and slide around him. His eyes popped open. "I don't have time for this, Claudia, as attractive as you may be," he said as he resolutely pinned his eyes to her face. 

With a wounded look, she covered his hand on the back of the chair with hers. She trailed her fingers up and down his bare forearm since his sleeves were already rolled up. A knowing smile crossed her lips. "Oh come on, Damien, I know you do. You must if you're trying to ignore me."

"I don't want you," he said as he pulled his hand from under hers. Chills were running up his arm from the caress. "I don't want anyone," he replied as he took a step away from his chair. 

"Then kiss me and prove to me that you don't want me, and I'll show you how wrong you really are," she threw out, challenging him. She tilted her chin up and looked at him. "I dare you to prove me wrong."

"I will do no such thing," he snapped, furious at himself because he couldn't stop looking at her and insanely angry for letting her get to him like she was. "Get your shirt and leave me alone. I've worked too hard to pull myself out of the depression you sent me into the first time," he said as he pushed the chair out of the way and took her by the shoulders. "What the hell do I need to do to get you to leave me alone and stop driving me insane?" he growled, shaking her slightly. 

Smirking, Claudia grabbed him by the shirt collar. "Kissing me," she replied as she yanked his mouth down to hers. 

Heat surged through him as soon as her mouth touched his. Those supple lips of hers were parting to tease his with the tip of her tongue. His own resolve crumbled a bit under the onslaught, but he managed to pull his lips away. _"Don't be a fucking pushover where she's concerned, Winner! You fell prey to that once, not again," he thought as he looked down at her heaving breasts against his chest. "No," he said as he looked back into her appealing face and pushed her away. He sat back down in his chair and returned his attention to his computer monitor. _

Her eyes narrowed at his rebuff. "I don't think so," she said as she got on his desk and pushed herself forwards onto his lap. "I'm not leaving until you prove me wrong," she said, an edge to her voice. She crushed her lips against his once again. 

Several heartbeats passed as Damien kissed her back. Part of him was rejoicing the feel of her lips on his again. But it was a very small part now. He was surprised not to feel the all-consuming emotions he had felt for her, now all he felt was the barest twinge of them, but nothing more. He had wondered what it would feel like for her to kiss him, to touch him again like she was now. Memories still came back, but all they were, were memories, not reality like he had thought for a long time. He gently brought his hands up to her shoulders and pushed her away. He had finally found the words he needed to say to her. "No, Claudia. I don't love you anymore. This isn't going to make me take you back. Your change of heart is a surprise, but no. Kissing me was a revelation."

Claudia looked at him, flabbergasted from his response. "You couldn't possibly mean that."

"Have I ever lied to you? I'm serious when I say this and for the first time, I am telling you exactly how it has to be," he said as he pushed away from his desk. He set her away from him as he stood up and went to the window behind them. He started out into the distance. "I loved you, Claudia. I was head over heels in love with you and when you broke up with me, it sent me into a depression that lasted for months. I spent hours talking to Miles, Jonathon, Dominic, my brother, and even my father. I needed to or else I wouldn't have been able to look at myself in the mirror every morning. I was so ready to ask you to marry me when you broke up with me. I couldn't completely understand why and that's what hurt the most. I loved you so much that I couldn't see straight to save my life," he said as he raked a hand through his hair. He took a deep breath before he continued. He felt confident for the first time since their breakup. He knew exactly what he was saying and how he would say it. He wasn't going to hold back. 

She blinked her eyes several times as she looked at his back. With supreme effort she reigned in her temper and walked over to him, pasting on her sweetest smile. "But, Damien, how can you push me away? I never knew you wanted to marry me and if you had, I would've said yes. There is still time for us you know. I want you back. That should be enough for you."  
  


Turning his head, he looked her straight in the eyes. "I can push you away because I don't need you anymore. I loved you, yes, and part of me will probably always love you, but it's past. If you had come back a few months ago, then maybe, but now, I think I can go on very well without you," he explained, his tone gentle. He smiled slightly. "Don't take any of this the wrong way, you're everything I've ever wanted, but I think I need someone who needs me. You don't need me, Claudia."

"I do!" Claudia burst out as she clutched his arm. She was determined not to let him get away. And to make sure that, that Angelina girl, did not get him either. "I do need you! I want you! If I'm everything you want, why don't you take me back! It'll be different this time, I promise!"

With a rueful smile, he shook his head. "No, Claudia. You'll be able to find someone capable of giving you what you need. It would be the same as the first time with us. It was clear that I wasn't giving you what you needed, but like before the business and my family still come first right now."

A frustrated growl escaped her lips. "And what about that assistant of yours? That little redhead, Angelina, does she come first too?"

Slightly taken aback by her brusque tone, he shook his head. "What does she have to do with anything?"

"She's infatuated with you. Is she what YOU need? Do you want her like she obviously wants you?"

He chewed on his lower lip for a second, trying to choose his words carefully. "Angie is Angie. I know she's been chasing me, but I can't stop her from doing what she wants."

"And have you encouraged her behavior towards you? Do you want her?" Claudia asked pointedly. 

Frowning, he shook his head again. "Whatever gave you that idea?" he asked as he removed his arm from her grasp. "Angelina is very attractive, I'll admit that, but I'm only friendly with her, nothing more."

"Than why does she chase you even though she knows this?"

"Because she's headstrong and doesn't take no for an answer. I think she's a delightful person when she's not throwing herself at me."

"You're attracted to her, aren't you?" she asked, her eyes narrowing a bit. "I knew she was something that would catch your interest, but she's not perfect. She's not the girl for you. I am. Forget her about her. I'm everything you've ever wanted in a woman."

Annoyed, he fully turned to look at her. "Claudia, would you please stop this? I'm not looking for a girlfriend. I don't have the time right now to fulfill the needs a girlfriend requires. Angie is just my assistant. She may not be the perfect woman, and I know that she isn't. I don't care about that. She's just nice to have around since she knows what she's doing."

Pursing her lips in a thin line, she propped her hands on her hips and regarded him. "I saw her the other day. She's not going to take no for answer. She means to have you at any cost. She said she would do anything to keep me away from you."

Arching a brow at his ex-girlfriend, he contemplated her words. They didn't seem like they were something that his little red head would say. He dared to glance back at Claudia. , who was looking more and more upset as the time went on. He thought it odd that she was acting the way she was because to him, it was so unlike her to be like that. He let out a sigh. "Claudia, don't be silly. That sounds nothing like her at all."

"Well, I'm not! I heard her say the words! Jonathon heard her too! He encouraged her!"

"That might be a given since you know he doesn't like you. But it still doesn't sound like something she would say."

Walking away, she paced back and forth before slapping her hands on the edge of his desk. "Then you don't know that girl very well. She's some brassy redhead with no manners. No scruples, no morals, and who knows what else she doesn't possess! You deserve better!"

Now completely surprised with her outburst, he gave her a puzzled look. "And you don't know her very well either, Claudia, so what are you basing your opinions of her on?"

"Her looks, of course."

His jaw tightened a bit. "Her looks have nothing to do with the way she acts. I don't even know why you're losing your temper over her. This is pointless. I may not have strong feelings for her, but I certainly know her better than you do."

"You're lying when you say you don't have strong feelings for her! You're an open book, Damien! You're willing to bed down with a whore!"

Completely shocked, his aquamarine eyes frosted over from her words. "And you're the one calling her a whore, when you so clearly came in here to seduce me?"

Claudia blanched, but recovered and stood up straight, thrusting out her chin. "I haven't slept around. You're the one who so conveniently relieved me of my virginity, or don't you remember?"

His jaw clenched. "I remember perfectly, but you could have said no. I wasn't asking for any."

"But you took what I gave to you and you had no problem making love to me other times afterwards!"

"You offered! I loved you, so I had no problem."

"Don't you miss it, Damien, the way that I say your name, the way I touch you, the way that I made you feel?" 

Squeezing his eyes shut, he reigned in his temper that rolled under the surface. "I haven't forgotten that either, but it won't change anything," he replied as he opened his eyes again to look at her, coldly.  And right now, I guess I'm getting to see your true nature, aren't I, Claudia? That perfect lady veneer of yours is just an act, isn't it?"

"No, it's not. I am the perfect woman and I get what I want to. And you're what I want and if I can't have you, then she won't either. I will make her so miserable, that she won't want to have anything to do with you."

"Whom the hell are you talking about?" he hissed.

"Angelina, of course. If I can't have you, neither will she. I'll prove how unworthy of you she is and maybe then, you'll come to your senses and come back to me," Claudia snapped back as she swiped her shirt from the floor. "She doesn't stand a chance against me," she said as she walked towards the door, pulling it open, only to come face to face with her rival. A wicked smile touched her lips. "Well, well, isn't it, Angelina. So nice of you to stop by. Don't keep him too long, I think I wore him out," she said, her tone sweet and nasty as she nonchalantly pushed some buttons back through their holes on her shirt. "Later, darling," she said as she smiled at Damien before shutting the door behind her. Sighing, she rubbed her hands together, an evil glint in her eyes as she walked away. 

Damien gulped as he looked at Angelina and back at the closed door. Those silvery eyes of hers were wide with hurt and disbelief. "Angelina…"

A/N: Sorry it took so long to get this out, but it's here and I hope you like it. More to be coming soon! Like the cliffhanger? XOXO!!

_  
  
_


	12. Comfort and Tears

_Disclaimer: I don't own them except for the kids!_

The Perfect Temptation, Part 12 

**__**

Damien stared at Angelina's stricken expression. Intense anger and guilt rushed through him. "Angie…"

Angelina whirled on her heels and sped out of the office. Her heart was thumping in her ears and tears were pricking at the backs of her eyelids. Half of her wanted to go after Claudia and pound her into the ground, and the other half wanted to curl up in a corner and die. She heard him say her name, but she didn't heed it and kept on walking. Then she felt hands slide around her waist and pull her to a halt. Looking over her shoulder at him, she glared. "Let go of me," she hissed. 

"No, not until I explain," he stated as he looked deep into those silver eyes of hers. He could see the tears shimmering in their depths as well as the fiery anger that she was containing inside of her. "Please?" he asked.

"Go to hell," she snapped as she struggled against the grip he had on her. 

"Well that's too damn bad because I'm going to explain to you whether you like it or not," he shot back as he bent down and tossed her over his shoulder. Jeanette passed him a shocked look as he carried a cursing Angelina back to his office. Her fists were making his back sore. Kicking the door closed with his foot, he turned and locked it. "Dammit, Angelina, you're going to give me a backache if you keep that up."

"Then put me down," Angelina snarled as she leaned up a bit to look at him. 

"You asked," he said as he dropped her, unceremoniously, onto the buttery leather couch he had in his office. "Now, stop with the screeching and listen to me."

"I'm not going to believe one word you say, Winner, So, get the hell out of my way!" She stood up, only to be pushed back down. 

Damien kept his palms on her shoulders to keep her from getting up again. "Dammit, this is important that I do this, so don't be a brat. Stay down and shut up."

Surprised at his firm tone and the resolute expression on his face, she crossed her arms and regarded him with a level stare. "I'm waiting, but don't expect me to believe a word you're saying," she snapped. 

His lips tightened in a thin line at her response. She made it so hard for him not to lose his temper and explode. It made him want to strangle her. But she looked magnificent when she was angry. Those eyes of hers were flashing like polished silver, her pink lips drawn into a pursed pucker, and her creamy complexion flushed red. He didn't know if it would be more expedient just to kiss her and get it over with. And he wanted to kiss her. He was surprised by how much. With a deep breath he tucked his hands behind him and held her eyes with his. "Now I want you to understand that I did nothing with Claudia. She came in here with a mind to seduce me. I didn't ask her to come. She came onto me and I tried my best to get her to leave, but she wouldn't until I proved her wrong," he explained, slowly and concisely. 

"Why did you have to prove her wrong?" Angelina asked, as she didn't break his look. 

"She wanted me to kiss her."

Momentarily shocked by his straightforward answer, she searched his face to see if he was telling her the truth. Those lips of his were drawn in a firm line and he was gazing at her steadily. He wasn't lying. "And did you?" she asked, not taking her eyes off of him. 

"No. When I didn't comply, she kissed me," Damien replied. He saw her eyes grow cold again. She was drawing back into herself and putting up barriers. He was beginning to recognize it very well. "I didn't have much of a choice. If it got rid of her sooner, then fine."

"And did you like it?"  
  


"No. I didn't."

Relief flooded through her, but she didn't let it show. Uncrossing her arms, she pushed herself off the couch and slowly began to walk about his office. On his desk were a half eaten bagel, but not one crumb. She smiled inwardly. He was as much as a neat freak as Chris complained that Victoria was. "And I'm sure, she wondered why you didn't."

"Because, I don't love her anymore. All of what I had of her, were pleasant memories. She was the first woman that I loved, and who loved me. It was a nice kiss, but I didn't feel a thing about it," he said as his eyes followed her about the office. Strands of her hair were falling out of the messy bun to caress her cheeks and her clothing was neat, but comfortable. The slim fitting black capries looked a bit wrinkled, as did the body hugging black top with its draped neckline. The total opposite of Claudia in every way. She looked more touchable than his ex ever did and he wanted to reach out and touch her, to see if her skin was as soft as he imagined it would be. "Angelina, that's the truth. I don't want her back since I know what she's capable of. She hurt me once and I wouldn't let her do it to me again."

Angelina turned back to look at him. "You honestly think that you turned her away this time, that she'll take no for a answer? No, she'll come after you any way that she can. Now that she's determined to have you, she'll dog your every step."

The morning sun brought out the copper in her hair, making it look like a halo about her head. The brilliance of the light was almost blinding to him, but he didn't turn away from the angel like vision she presented. Her name did suit her to a point. "Maybe, but I know what to expect from her now. She won't get what she's looking for, no matter what she says."

"Maybe that too. Beautiful women sway most men, especially if they are seducing them. And if she can make you remember anything at all, she'll use it to her advantage. And if you're hot for her, you'll fall right into her arms and her bed."

"Unlike my cousin, Miles, or even of the two Maxwell boys, I don't fall prey to the same weaknesses as they do. I didn't have their luck with the girls and I was never interested enough to chase after women in the first place. It's not me at all, so she can try to seduce me all she likes, I'm not going to hop into bed with her."

"That's what they all say," she snorted as she faced him fully, her hands coming to rest on her curving hips. "You men are all alike, you say you won't but deep down, all of you will. It's instinct. You're sexually attracted to any woman that shows you the least bit of encouragement."

Frowning, he crossed his arms. "You certainly have a low opinion of men, Angelina. Is there a reason for that?" he asked, his eyes trying to catch hers. She was adroitly avoiding them and she wasn't answering his question. With a frustrated sigh, he walked over to her and threaded his fingers through her hair so she would look at him in the face. "Is there a reason you have such a low opinion of us? Answer me."

The way he was looking at her, coupled with the feel of his hands holding her so close, made it impossible for her to avoid replying.  "I've dated before. I've seen what men do when there's a beautiful woman in the vicinity. They're drawn to her and they forget about the one that they're supposed to be with. She doesn't mean a thing to them; she was just a cure for their loneliness. I was just a means to see my beauty queen mother. They never wanted me, they wanted her," she replied, her voice shaking with resentment and hurt. "And you're not that much different. You don't want me either and you even said that you would pity any man I was with. You're right, you should pity the man that gets me because all he's getting is a poor imitation of the mother. I have only the brains, but never the looks. And brains don't get love, beauty does," she finished in a painful whisper. "So, you were right."

Guilt sliced through him from his words that he had flung at her. He didn't say anything, but continued to look into the tear-brightened eyes. They looked like liquid silver. Her lower lip was trembling ever so slightly, trying valiantly to hold back her tears. He was at a loss for words. He was also angry. Furious with all of those boys who had dated her only to be close to the mother, who thought her own child was not pretty enough to find someone. 

When he didn't reply, she tried to pull away from him. He didn't let go. Her hands came up over his, tugging at them. "Let me go, Damien. Just let me go," she burst out as a few tears managed to trickle down her cheeks. "Please…"she whimpered, her voice broken. 

Damien could see that she was losing the battle with her tears as they slipped one by one down her cheeks. Like most guys, he had a hard time dealing with tears. He never knew what to do when a woman would start crying. _"What could I possibly do? I'm partly responsible for this and I don't know how to stop it." _ He touched his forehead to hers, stroking her wet cheeks with his thumbs. "If you need to cry, just cry, Angelina. Don't hold it back. I don't know what else I should do or say to you, but don't let your pride get in the way of what needs to get out."

Maybe it was what he said or the way he said it, but the dam inside of her broke and all the hurt, the pain, the anger, came flooding out. Angelina collapsed into his arms, her hands twisting in the front of his shirt as she cried in loud, body wracking sobs. She didn't feel his arms finally come to wrap around her as she cried against his chest. 

He had never heard someone cry like this before. It felt like a knife was twisting in his heart with each gulping sob she made. He held her tight as her body shook. He ran his fingers up and down her back, hoping it was in a comforting manner. 

Her legs could no longer support her, as she slumped against him. The tears that had been stored up since childhood were pouring out of her with each breath. She was dimly aware of his hands moving up and down her back. His touch felt awkward, like he wasn't sure if he was doing the right thing. His attempt at comforting her, however, made her cry even harder. 

He slowly lowered the both of them to the floor, keeping her securely tucked in his arms. She felt boneless in his arms. One hand trailed up her back and rubbed the back of her neck, while the other one massaged each vertebra. She was practically sitting on his lap, her head curled against the side of his neck. He could feel the hot tears sliding down the collar of his shirt. The sheer force of her anguish was lost on Damien. _"She's going to make herself sick if she keeps crying like this. All these tears, she's must have held back for a long time and it only took me to bring them about." _Now, he had to figure out a way to make her stop. Telling her would not be an option in this case for she certainly wouldn't hear him. He closed his eyes, turning his head against the satin of her hair. "Angelina," he murmured. 

Angelina heard him say her name. Her fingers loosened their grip on his shirt as she lifted her head away from his neck. She felt his legs under hers. Finally looking up, she met those crystalline aquamarine eyes of his. 

He was surprised that she had heard him. Her eyes were still shimmering with tears. They made her eyes look like mercury. Her face was splotchy and pink, her lips red and wet. "Don't cry anymore."

"I can't."

He smoothed a thumb over her one cheek. "Yes, you can."

"I can't…stop…" she whimpered before her features crumpled once again. 

Now at a total loss of what to do, he had to think of something fast. More tears were raining down her cheeks. _"What would Vaughn do? What would Jonathon do? They never seem to have any trouble comforting a crying woman. What can I do to at least calm her down?" _he thought frantically. Then it came to him as he looked down into her face. Not one hundred percent sure that this was the right thing to do, he decided it was better than nothing at all. He touched his lips to hers.   

Angelina choked off in mid sob as she felt his lips on hers. They were gentle and soft against her mouth. Her hands relaxed against his shirt. She instantly knew what he was trying to do and with the soothing stroking of his thumb on her cheek and the consoling pressure of his mouth on hers, her cries died in her throat. 

Damien lifted his head away from hers and looked down into her face again. He cupped her cheek in his palm. He rolled his lips inwards, tasting the salt from her tears. Her eyes fluttered open to look at him. He could see her confusion. He could feel his own. The action he had just done, baffled him. "Angelina?"

"Yes?" she replied, as she took a deep breath to steady her voice. 

"You feel better?"

"Why did you kiss me?"

"Because it felt like it was the right thing to do."

"Is that the only reason?" she asked, her voice soft. 

"…Uh…um…I…" he replied; now definitely not knowing what to do or say. _"And how can I answer her when I don't even fully understand why I did it myself." _He wished her eyes weren't searching his like they were. He wished she didn't make him feel like he was twisted into thousands of knots. He wished he wasn't still thinking of kissing her. His hand fell away from her face as he eased her away from him. He couldn't think straight with her being so close. 

"Damien, was it the only reason?" she prompted as she looked into his eyes. The loss of his body heat made her shiver slightly, but she could still feel the warm imprint of his mouth on hers. That alone still made her insides tingle. She watched him look away. The uncertainty was written in his eyes. "Damien?"

"I don't know, I honestly don't. I wish I could give you an answer, but I don't have one. I need to think about it because it was meant to stop you from crying, but yet…" His eyes fell away from hers again, but he brought them back. "Would you be willing to go out to dinner with me?" he asked, shocking himself even more.

Her eyes widened several degrees. "You want me to go out to dinner with you? Why?"

"Because then I might have an answer for you. I'm not good in situations like this and I don't want to set you off again by saying the wrong thing."

"All right," she answered slowly. "When do you want to take me to dinner?"

"This Friday because hopefully, by then, I'll have this all sorted out." He lifted his fingers one again and touched her cheek again. "I'm sorry."

She reached up and touched her fingers to the back of his hand. Healing warmth trickled through her. She didn't say anything as they both dropped their hands away. She stood, wiping the remnants of her tears with the back of her hands. "Friday then," she said as she backed away from him. She turned to open the door, but she paused. "Thank you," she said quietly as she opened the door and left. She climbed into Hilde's SUV that she borrowed and bent her head over the steering wheel. "Friday. I wonder what he'll say. Will it be just because he was stopping my tears or was he motivated by something deeper?"

Damien stared after her, hearing her faint words. He leaned against the edge of his desk and stared at the floor. His brow was knit in thought as he rolled his lips inwards once again. He could still taste her there and the fragrant scent of lime clung to him. Glancing at his monitor, an odd smile crossed his lips. "I guess I really didn't need that at all." He returned his eyes to the floor. It was now time for him to review his jumbled emotions. He had four days to give her a clear answer on why he really kissed her. And four days to understand exactly what he felt. __

_A/N: I know it's been awhile, but here's the next installment. I hope you all enjoy! XOXO!!_


	13. The Big Night Is Here

Disclaimer: I don't own them except for the kids!  
  


The Perfect Temptation, Part 13 

**__**

With trembling fingers, he fiddled with the buttons on his deep blue dress shirt. Letting out a frustrated sigh, Damien let his hands fall to his sides. "This is ridiculous. Why are you getting so nervous about this?" he muttered as he looked back at his reflection in his bathroom mirror. It was Friday. His date with Angelina. His stomach felt like it was twisted in knots. He had never felt this nervous before. He had been on dates before and he didn't understand why he would be so jittery now. Frowning, he raked a hand through his damp blond hair, making the carefully combed strands fall into disarray. "Get control of yourself," he grumbled with deprecation as a soft knock sounded at his door. "Come on in," he called out as he picked up his tie that went with his shirt. 

Mira smiled at her brother's expression as he attempted to tie his tie. Shaking her head, she let out a sigh and sat down on the edge of his bureau. "You're making a mess of it," she commented as she looked up at him. 

"You think I don't know that, Mira," he snapped as he undid the knot in it again. His eyes went to his eighteen-year-old sister, his aqua eyes meeting hers. "I don't understand why the hell I'm acting like an idiot right now. I've been on dates before," he said as he attempted to redo his tie again. 

"Because you're not used to dating. You haven't dated since Claudia," she replied as the heels of her white tennis shoes hit the drawers behind them. With another sigh, she pushed his hands out of the way. "You're going to strangle yourself," she said softly as she undid it and began to slowly retie it. "You're not comfortable with going out with girls. You never were. I could always feel that," she murmured. 

Looking down at her, he assessed his baby sister. Her soft platinum blond hair was pulled back into a high ponytail, which dangled just past her shoulders. She was wearing her tennis whites, the short little pleated skirt doing little to hide her long tan legs and her shirt was cropped to show her midriff and belly ring. Like Vaughn and their father, she was empathic, although nowhere near as sensitive as them. She would sometimes have to physically touch the person to feel their emotions, which was how she normally would read him. The sound of her shoes hitting the bureau made him frown. She would leave a mark. 

"They'll wipe off."

Her sudden response made him chuckle, releasing some of his tense nerves. Her crystalline eyes were rebuking him, but there was a smile on her lips as she said it. "I'm sorry, Mir."

Mira waved her hand. "No need. But it's nice to see you at least smiling again," she said as she patted the knot of his tie with her fingers. She then curled them around the edge of the wood; her legs still swinging forward and back, her ankles crossed. "It's good to see you going out again. Angelina is such a nice girl. A heart of an angel she has."

Damien snorted. "Heart of an angel? More like the heart of a temptress just like Randy and Ver. That girl is no angel."

"But she does and you should know that what you see is an act. Randy and Veronica are the same way. They act like they are, but underneath their just as vulnerable as everyone else. Angelina genuinely likes you and you should be glad that she likes you for who you really are, not because you're a Winner," she said with all earnestness. She leaned forwards a little. "You're just scared of letting her know how she really gets to you and who you really are behind that cool façade you put up. It's time for you to play, Damien. You sit behind a desk too long and you'll forget that there's a life out there waiting for you."

"Am I that transparent? I don't know what possessed me to ask her out to dinner tonight. I don't know how she makes me feel and I said I would tell her, but so far, I've come up with nothing at all."

"Damien, I know how you feel about her. She makes you feel so much at once, it scares you because of the depth of which you're feeling. Everything she is and does, strikes a deep chord in you that you don't want to admit. You've had strong feelings for Claudia and she burned you, so you buried any deep feelings towards any girl that approached you. You don't want to be hurt."

He knew she was right. The strong emotions that Angelina evoked frightened him. It didn't matter if it was lust or something more. He could admit, at least to himself, that he liked her too. She had a brilliant mind, which made her easy to talk business with. She was sweet and funny, and loved her surrogate family, the Maxwells with equal intensity that she had shown in her pursuit of him. But he knew what lurked behind that sexy smile and silvery eyes, and it broke his heart. No one deserved someone to care about them as much as she did. _"And as much as you do, if you want to admit it," _he thought as he looked at his reflection. "I like her," he said softly. 

"Which is what you have to build upon because she really likes you," Mira returned as she hopped off the edge of the bureau. Facing him, she straightened his tie and smoothed the material of his shirt across his shoulders. "Are you bringing her anything?" she asked.

"Yellow jonquils. Vaughn told me that she likes those," Damien replied as he pushed her fussing hands away. "You're acting like mom, Mira," he chided. 

Pouting, she tilted her chin up at a haughty angle. "Someone has to understand you besides Vaughn and he does it just to irk you. Quatrina and you are similar enough to know how the other one acts and thinks, but she doesn't know how you feel when she can't always express her own towards Zach," she mentioned offhandedly. 

Her remark caused a slight crease in his forehead. Being a twin, he often knew how his sister reacted, thought, and felt about certain things. And when it came to her relationship with Zach, she loved him and had no problem telling him, it was physically expressing of those emotions that frightened her. _"And with good reason,"_ he thought grimly. "Quat has her own way of understanding things about me, just as Vaughn and you do. And right now, he's trying to sort out his problems with Veronica, which in my opinion is something he should have done a long time ago."

"True, but at least he's acknowledged the fact that he has to confess or risk losing her. You have to do what he has to do, no matter what. It doesn't matter if you don't know what to say now, you'll know when the time comes to say something. And then you'll look back and laugh about how nervous you were when you knew all along what to say."

"How are you so wise for an eighteen year old?" Damien asked as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. 

With an impish grin, Mira glanced up at him as they left his room. "Observation. I learn a lot from watching the chaos that surrounds us."

Her reply made him chuckle as they walked down the hall. 

******************************************************************************

"No, not that dress."

"You looked good in it."

"I want something a little more…"

"Sedate?"

"Not too sedate."

"I think she's looking for something sophisticated, but sexy."

"And I'm not?" Randy sputtered as she glared at Veronica, who was lying on her bed. 

"You're a little more flamboyant that Angelina, Randy," Veronica pointed out as she wagged her finger at her friend. 

Randy stuck out her tongue. 

Angelina rolled her eyes. "You two are not helping me here by arguing," she stated, looking at the two of them. 

Randy frowned at the blond. "Well you could have brought some of your wardrobe if you thought mine was so bad."

"I didn't say it was bad. Besides, I have too many dresses to even carry over here if I wanted to," Veronica replied with a sigh. "You're lucky I brought some of them that I thought would work."

"Oh yeah, like you're always sophisticated and sexy."

"More so than you."

"Take that back."

"Make me."

Angelina sighed again and rolled her eyes. She went into Randy's closet and pulled out another dress. The two girls were still arguing when she went into the bathroom. Shutting the door behind her, she shed the deep blue sundress with the crisscrossed straps in the back. She tugged the blue gray dress on, securely tying the halter tight around the back of her neck. She glanced at herself in the mirror. She made a face. "I don't think this one looks good enough either," she mumbled turning from side to side. She wanted to make a lasting impression on him tonight. She wanted to show that she could be a lady, which had been drilled into her by her mother, and even Hilde. She had buried that knowledge when she had moved in with her father. There was no place for that in a scrap yard, and it had made her happier to use the brains that she had been given, instead of worrying about the looks she was sure she was never going to have. She pushed the door open and stepped out. "Well?"

Randy and Veronica paused in the middle of their argument. Veronica sat up, crossed legged on the bed. "It's ok on you, but it's not right. There's something missing."

"I think she looks good in it," Randy said as she walked around the copper haired girl. 

"Its not right for her," Veronica countered, crossing her arms. 

"I say it is," Randy retorted stubbornly. 

Angelina slapped her hand to her forehead. "I should have just bought myself a damn dress instead of this."

"Well, why don't you try this?"

Angelina turned around to see Hilde standing in the doorway with a dress bag. "You have a dress for me?"

Hilde smiled. "It was going to be a gift from Duo and I for your birthday, but since those two," she said nodding towards her daughter and Veronica, "are not being much help, I thought you might like to try this instead."

She took the proffered dress bag out of the older woman's hands. With a grateful smile, she threw her arms around her neck. "Thank you, Hilde. This means a lot to me."  
  


She hugged the younger girl back. "Anything to bring a smile to your face and to make sure you look your best on this special occasion."

"Thank you," Angelina said again as she rushed back into the bathroom with the dress. Slipping free of the other dress, she pulled the plastic from the other one. She smiled as she looked at it. "Hilde has good taste," she commented as she pulled her new dress on. 

Hilde shook her head at Randy and Veronica. "I could hear you two in my room down the hall. Will you stop arguing over who has a better wardrobe and help Angelina. This night means a lot to her and neither one of you are helping."

Veronica and Randy flinched from the gentle scolding. "Sorry," they both mumbled in response. 

Angelina turned around again in front of the mirror. She had applied her makeup since she knew this was the right dress. Her bare toes curled on the fuzzy light blue rug on the white tiled floor as she continued to smile at her appearance. Satisfied with her makeup job, she pushed open the door. "So, what do you think about this?" she asked, doing a slow turn with her arms outstretched. 

"Damn, you're going to have him blushing all night," Randy smirked as she walked around her. 

"And that was the look you were trying to go for, sexy and refined. And I agree with Randy, Damien will blush like crazy. Winner men are so predictable when it comes to a girl showing that much skin just for them," Veronica smirked as well as she slid off the bed and stood next to Randy. 

"You look lovely, dear," Hilde said as she looked at the young woman she had a hand in raising since she was ten. She could still remember the reed thin fourteen-year-old girl with freckles, glasses, and braces. She knew of the mother's high criticism over Angelina's looks and it would usually put her in a fury because she never believed that a mother could belittle a child for not looking like a tiny beauty queen. And when Howard got divorced, she made sure Duo and her would visit them, two or three weeks during the summer. The boys and Randy would be taken along too since she was an only child. It was so hard to believe that the little girl with the freckles had become such a beauty. Even more than her own mother. "I thought of you when I saw that dress. Duo thought it was too much for you, but he indulges you as much as he does Randy."

"I can't thank you enough, Hilde" Angelina said as she wrapped her arms around her again, giving her a tight squeeze. 

Hugging the girl back, she shook her head. "Every woman deserves a hot little black dress," she said with a smirk of her own. "It's nice to see men get all flustered."

Angelina laughed. "Well, I'm sure that won't be too hard in this," she said as she stepped back. "And I still have to do my hair and find a pair of shoes to wear."

"Then I'll leave you two to help her finish getting ready. And no more arguing, girls," she said with a warning looking in her cornflower blue eyes as she turned and left the room. 

"I think I have the perfect shoes to go with that," Randy said as she went into her closet. 

"While she's looking, sit down and let me see what I can do with your hair," Veronica mused as she tapped her finger against her lips. 

Angelina sat down in the desk chair, folding her hands in her lap as she watched the blond girl walk back and forth, barefoot on the plush blue carpet. "Is the makeup ok, though?" she asked. 

"You did a good job with that…now that hair," she said again as she opened her box of makeup and hair "goodies." "I know exactly what I want to do. We want to show off your neck," she said as she took out a round brush, a curling iron, and some pins. 

Feeling the brush pull at her copper hair, she glanced in the direction of Randy's closet. There were muffled thuds as well as muttered curses from not being able to find what she wanted. It made her laugh to herself. _"I've never been fussed over like this before. I never had a reason to look this good for a guy and Randy and Ver are both pitching in to help. And Hilde…she was a godsend. She picked out the perfect dress for me," _she thought as she felt a pin slid against her scalp. Closing her eyes, she thought of Damien. _"I can't help but wonder what he's going to say. It's been leaving knots in my stomach these last few days. I really do like him a lot and I hope what he has to say won't send me into God knows what."_

"All done," Veronica announced as she sprayed flexible hold hairspray onto the coiffure she created. With a look of utter satisfaction, she pulled Angelina out of the chair and over to the vanity mirror. "Take a look at yourself and be prepared for him to be knocked for a loop."

Angelina's eyes widened as she took in what Veronica had done. Soft tendrils fell down about her ears. Not one pin showed in the elegantly done hair. "I love it," she said softly.

"Glad you do."

"FOUND THEM!"  
  


Veronica rolled her eyes. "About damn time, Maxwell. I though you got lost in there."

"At least I can find things in my closet," Randy snapped as she came out with the strappy black heels. "You did good with the hair, Ver. You should be a hairstylist."

"I have a job, like you do. I stay clean at mine. You get messy."

"Not at the mill I don't. Just the shop," she said as she handed Angelina the shoes. "Put these on. You're lucky I wear the same size as you."

"Bigfoot."

Randy stuck her tongue out at Veronica again. "Well put them on so we get the full effect of the dress, Angie."

Slipping on the strappy shoes, she did another turn. "Well?"

"Perfect."

"You'll definitely be making him blush tonight."

Flushing from their praise, she turned again in front of the full-length mirror on the back of the door. "I certainly hope so," she murmured. 

******************************************************************************

Damien pulled into the long curving driveway of the Maxwells and stopped right in front of the flagstone path. Climbing out, he held onto a bouquet of bright yellow jonquils tied with a black satin ribbon, courtesy of his mother. They came from their greenhouse. Taking a deep breath, he walked up the steps and knocked on the paneled door. His nerves were still jangling.   
 

Hilde walked out of the kitchen when she heard the door. Pulling it open, she smiled at the expression on Damien's face. "Calm down and come in," she laughed. 

With a sheepish grin, he walked into the wide foyer. Raking his teeth across his lips, he cleared his throat when he saw Duo, then Jonathon, David, and Chris come and stand nearby. _"This is not helping me any. All four of them would slit my throat if I hurt her and they know I know it. Damn all four of them." _"Is Angelina ready?" he asked Hilde.

"She should be," she replied as she glanced back up the stairs. "Angelina, Damien's here!"

He heard the pounding off feet upstairs and looked up to see Randy and Veronica, both barefoot coming to a halt at the top of the steps. They both leaned over the railing, giving him the trademark smirk inherited from their fathers'. It sent tremors down his spine. 

Angelina took a deep breath of her own and made one last turn in front of the mirror. "Tonight is your night," she said to her reflection as she bobbed her head once and left the room. 

Damien waited. He stood at the foot of the steps with Hilde. He could feel three pairs of cobalt eyes boring into his back, as well as a set of blue violet ones. He shifted on his feet. He could also feel the knowing looks of the two girls at the top of the stairs. Hearing another set of footsteps, he cast his gaze up to the top of the steps. What he saw, made his eyes widen and his jaw drop and inch. _"Wow…"_

_A/N: I know it took some time, but I hope you all enjoyed it! Stay tuned for more coming soon! XOXO!!_


	14. Don't Think, Just Act and Confess

_Disclaimer: I don't own them except for the kids!_

The Perfect Temptation, Part 14 

**__**

There was no way to even describe her. He couldn't even think coherently and he was sure he looked like a damned idiot with his jaw hanging open. Snapping it shut, he walked to the foot of the steps and offered her his hand. It was the only thing he could do since he couldn't think of a word to say to her. 

Taking his proffered hand, Angelina smiled inwardly at his speechlessness. Her eyes glanced over at the men who loved her like family. Their faces were registering their shock as well. Especially Duo's, who finally managed to close his and give Hilde a level, look. She could hear the muffled snickers of Randy and Veronica on the landing above. Glancing up at him, she blinked her eyes slowly and smiled. "You're very prompt, aren't you, Damien?"

Her voice broke his trance as he stared down at her. Absently brushing his thumb over her knuckles, he passed her a weak smile. "I like making a good impression, I guess," he replied. 

_"She looks gorgeous."_ He handed her the flowers that he brought her. 

"Thank you," she replied as she sniffed at the brilliant colored flowers in her hands. She gave him a dazzling smile. He looked so adorable with that flustered look on his face. This was the Damien that girls responded to with shy awkwardness and the flush beginning to seep into his cheeks. "You're making a good one so far, especially with the flowers…and the blushing."

If anything, he felt his face get hotter. He raked his teeth across his lower lip. Clearing his throat, he ignored the very audible snickers of Randy and Veronica, and the overly protective looks boring into him from the four men. "Are you ready to go?" 

"Yes."

"Good," he replied as he led her towards the door. The stares of the Maxwell men were starting to make him uncomfortable. 

"Have a nice time you two," Hilde said as she stepped behind them. She gave Duo and her sons a quelling look before smiling at Damien. "Don't worry about being late."  
  


"Thanks, Hilde," Damien said, grateful for her comforting expression and words. 

"Yeah, and don't blush all night, Winner, you don't want people to think you have a permanent case of sunburn," Randy smirked from the landing. 

He hunched his shoulders as Hilde shushed her now laughing daughter and best friend. He quickly shut the door behind him. Looking at Angelina, he found her grinning at him, but she had a thoughtful look in her eyes. He cleared his throat again. "Come on, I made reservations," he said as he opened the car door for her. 

Angelina couldn't help but smile as he walked around the other side. This was the side of him she had never really seen before. And it was endearing. It had taken all she had not to giggle at the way Duo and her "brothers" were looking at him. She understood their protectiveness and having them turn it on poor Damien, who already looked nervous as hell, was something to laugh about. But right now, she didn't. If anything, she wanted this night to go as smoothly as possible. "Where are you taking me?" she asked as they turned onto the street. 

"There's a new restaurant on the top floor of the Graphique Hotel. I made reservations there. The food is kind of eclectic since I don't know what you prefer," he replied as he looked at her out of the corner of his eye. "It has a dance floor too since I think it's supposed to cater to the younger crowd rather than the kind I do business with."

"You mean not for stuffy business men, but young entrepreneurs like yourself."

"Something like that."

"Then I'm sure I'll have a wonderful time."

Damien looked back towards the road. He didn't say anything, but her response made him feel more confident about how the night was going to go. He was taking great pains to make sure that nothing would go wrong or that he would act like a complete idiot. And for the first time in his life, he wished he had the confidence that the likes of Jonathon, Miles, and Dominic seemed to have with the female population. Even his little brother did better than him. He glanced at her again as the sound of her stockings made a soft scratching sound as she recrossed her ankles. He let out a faint sigh and returned his eyes to the road. 

******************************************************************

"This is really the most beautiful view I've seen of the bay."

He glanced at her as they sat outside on the terrace before looking out at the water, sparkling under the light of the full moon. A half smile touched his lips before he returned his eyes to her. "I would have to agree with you," he replied as his eyes trailed over her profiled features. The hair, which he was sure was done by Veronica, was in an artful pile on top of her head. Strands of copper shimmered in the soft lighting as she turned her head a little more. A few errant wisps had escaped and lay against her neck and cheek. How he wanted to reach out and touch those soft looking curls, and twist them about his fingers. _"How could her mother say that she's not beautiful? She may not have that classic beauty like some, but she possesses something else. It's magnificence. A inner vibrancy that makes her stand out above all the conventional looking girls."_

Angelina was aware that he was looking at her, but she continued to look out at the mirrored waters. It had not been the first time she had felt his eyes on her. Even when he was driving, she had felt his gaze light on her more than once. She swirled the wine in her glass and took a sip, still looking out past the meticulously pruned shrubs that lined the wall of the terrace. He had not said anything about the answer he promised her he would have tonight, and she didn't press him for it. It was his move now, and knowing him, she knew how he acted when he was confronted with something. _"However…" _she thought as she stole a look at him from under her lashes, "_He hasn't looked at all apprehensive since we got here. He seems to be enjoying himself and he's made sure that I'm having a good time. He has no idea how much this means to me."_ A smile touched her lips as she turned her head to look at him. "I'm having a nice time, Damien."

His eyes sprang to hers. He had been studying the curve of her jaw, imagining how it would feel to slide his fingers along it. A guilty look crossed his face at her look of amusement. He cleared his throat and ducked his head to hide the tell tale heat creeping up his neck. "I'm glad that you're having a good time," he said, his voice a little lower then normal. Lifting his head again, he found her leaning forwards and smiling at him. "What?" he asked, self consciously running his finger under the collar of his shirt. 

"Nothing. I just think it's cute when you blush like that."

Her reply caused him to lower his fiddling fingers away from the shirt and rest them on the top of the table. "Randy and Veronica used to delight in doing that to me when they got old enough to have an effect. They did it to Vaughn too. As old as we both are, we can't seem to control it. It just happens."

"Well it's very attractive. It lets a girl know she's having an effect," she said as she set her elbows on the table before lacing her fingers and resting her chin on them. Her eyes trailed over his face as the flush faded away. "And I'm flattered that you like to look at me too."

"You're nice to look at…and you do look…well, pretty in that dress," he stammered. He noted that her eyes brightened several degrees as she tilted her head to one side. His eyes fell away from the directness of hers. He had always liked a simple black dress on a woman. It never failed to flatter. And she was no different. He thought back to when he watched her come down the steps. The knee length dress had clung to every curve she had and had accentuated the creamy whiteness of her skin. He liked how the discreetly plunging neckline allowed just enough cleavage, but what made the dress just more than a simple little black dress, was the straps. They were thin and they were tied at the shoulders in a bow. His mind had made a brief detour, thinking that one tug on either strap; the dress would fall in a heap. He had to shake his head to dispel that pleasant thought. 

She looked very pretty, but it didn't seem like the right word to describe what she looked like. _"She looks more than pretty in that dress…she looks hot in it. It's simple, elegant, and very sexy, so I know it's not out of Randy or Veronica's closets. She should wear black more often because it shows off that beautiful white skin of hers," _he thought with an inwards smirk. _"But at the same time, try not to get all flustered by her. Gaze into her eyes like she's doing with you. Be a little bolder than normal. You must have learned something from watching Miles, Jonathon, and Dominic."_ He raised his eyes back to hers. He could hear the music playing in the background. "Would you care to dance?"

Angelina noted the change in his eyes this time when he looked up at her. There was a more determined, much more appreciative look, shining in their depths. It made her curious to what he was thinking behind that now enigmatic smile he was wearing as he came around the table. "I thought you would never ask," she replied as she took his hand and let him lead her out to the dance floor that spilled out onto the terrace. Chills raced down her back as his hand firmly grasped hers and slid his other one around her waist to her back. The heat from it was making a distinct impression through the material as he pulled her close. 

Damien closed his eyes for a brief moment as he caught the subtle scent of her perfume. It made his nose twitch and caused him to absently lick his lips. Her closeness had already put his body into a near crazed state, and being even this close caused his hormones to go into a frenzy. And if she pressed her body against his, he knew he would be lost. He dared to touch his chin to her temple, feeling the softness of her hair against him. "Actually, you look more than just pretty in that dress," he said as bent his head a little more. 

"What do I look like then?" she asked as she leaned her head back to look at him. She could feel his breath against her lips, making them burn. Her heart thumped against her ribs. 

There was that look in her eyes. The look of wanting. Daring him. Daring him to say what he really thought about her in that dress. He pressed his cheek against hers, so his lips were barely an inch away from her ear. His heart pounded in his chest. "You look very elegant…and very, very…sexy," he whispered before lightly kissing her ear and moving his head away from hers. He mentally patted himself on the back for learning something from his two friends and his cousin. 

Stunned by his words, she felt a blush of her own race up her cheeks. She could feel his eyes on her face again, so she raised her eyes back to his. The aquamarine was much warmer than before. It made her pulse leap and heat run through her veins. She tilted her chin up and gazed into them despite the color in her cheeks. "Is that your honest opinion?"

"What do you think?" he asked as he bent his head closer to hers. 

"I don't know. Maybe you do, maybe you don't."

A smile crossed his lips as he bent his head even closer to hers. "Are you trying to get me to prove something?"

She smirked. "Maybe," she replied as she slid her arms around his neck, her own face inching closer to his. "You have something to prove, don't you?"

The flirtatiousness of her question caused him to hesitate and his earlier boldness to flee. He was treading in uncommon territory. He had never been that good at flirting. His nervousness with members of the opposite sex had intensified as he had gotten into his early adolescence and later teenage years. The girls he had been close to and grown up with had also had that effect on him. He could feel her body pressing up against his, teasing him. He knew he could prove it; he just didn't want to do the wrong thing. Mentally bracing himself again, he let his hand trail from her back, shoulder blades bared by her dress to her chin and neck. He raked his teeth over his bottom lip. "If I told you that you're turning the head of every man in here, including mine. That you…you look better than anything shown on the dessert menu…and that I…I would rather have you for dessert…instead of what's shown," he managed to say as he stymied the impulse to start blushing again. "Or that I've always thought you were one of the sexiest girls I ever laid eyes on…but I never wanted to admit the fact. So, does any of that prove it to you?"

"Yes…it does," she whispered as she smiled into his eyes. 

_"Kiss her. Don't think, just kiss her. Thinking will get you into trouble," _his mind hammered at him. He followed his instinct and bent his head even closer. Her lips were barely a breath away. 

She leaned into him. Her eyes drifted closed. And her heart rate escalated. 

"I can't believe what I'm seeing."

Damien's eyes popped open at the familiar sounding voice. He jerked his head around to come face to face with Claudia. _"Shit!" _Her slender ringless fingers were propped on her shapely hips. There was an indignant look on her face. "Hello, Claudia," he said as he turned to face her. 

Angelina's eyes narrowed to slits. "What the hell do you want?" she hissed. 

Claudia gave her a nasty smile. "Didn't you know? He asked me to come tonight too."

"I did not invite you," he sputtered as he glanced over his shoulder at Angelina. He looked back at his ex. "Claudia, this is not the time and place for…"

"For what? I thought you wanted to see me tonight so you could tell red, there, that we were…you know. I mean she does deserve to know because she is completely infatuated with you. But she's no more than a real beauty's daughter, who has nothing to…"

"Why you little…"

Damien felt her push against his arm, but he turned and grabbed hold of her shoulders. "Angie, this is not the time and place for you to…"

"To what! Nail her sway-backed ass to the wall? I certainly think it is!"

"Don't cause a scene, Angelina."

She looked up at him with disbelief written in her features. "Is she telling the truth? Are you protecting her?"

"No, I didn't invite her and I'm not protecting her. I just don't want to draw any more attention than we already are," he replied firmly as he turned around to face Claudia again. "Why are you doing this?" 

"Because I'm proving a point. She's ready to cause a scene like some ill bred child, while I'm being calm and rational like the perfect woman," she responded with a triumphant smile directed towards Angelina. "I told you that you couldn't win him, red. Not when I'm still around. You see, you have nothing, you are nothing, Angelina. You're far from being beautiful, so no guy is going to want you. Why would they? It's hard to believe that your mother was named one of the most beautiful women in the ESUN. It must rankle her that she had a daughter that looks like you."  
  


Fury ripped through Angelina with each barb, but it also brought a lump to her throat. It was twisting a knife into her heart because she knew each word to be true. She had no chance of competing with what she had been born with. Her mother was gorgeous. _"And then there's me. Poor Angelina who only received her father's brains and nothing else. She's right. I can't even compete with her."_ Her eyes went to Damien's. He was quietly standing there, not saying anything. Gritting her teeth, she pushed away the hurtful feelings. "At least I'm not some spoiled little bitch like you," she growled over his shoulder as he continued to hold her back. 

This was getting out of hand fast. He could feel the anger rippling off of her like heat waves and Claudia was wearing a triumphant smile. He took a few steps until he was directly in front of her. "This has to stop. Why can't you leave it, Claudia? You're not making this situation any better by making her mad. And I believe I already told you I wasn't interested anymore. I loved you then. This is now. While I will always have a place for you as the first girl I loved, there is no way I could ever be with you again," he explained as he took her by the shoulders. He looked into her eyes and gave her a rueful smile. "You hurt me so bad I thought I was going to die because I loved you so damn much. I thought you loved me as much."

"But I did! Damien…"

He shook his head. "You might have loved me, but nowhere near as much as I loved you. You loved me because I was the guy you could lead around. I let you because of how I felt, but I can't go back to that now. It's too late for us, Claudia. I'm not saying this to hurt you, but I found a way to go on without you. And I just can't let you upset Angie anymore because I don't want her distressed any further. Please, Claudia…do this for me. If you still care anything at all about me like you say you do…just please stop this…"

"But…" she sputtered.

"Please…"

Claudia gazed into his eyes and she looked over his shoulder at the still enraged girl. She looked back into his imploring face. Nodding her head, she took a step back. "Fine, but I'm not doing this for her…I'm doing it for you," she said as she quickly took a step forwards, placing her hands on the material of his shirt, pulling herself level with his face. "A good bye kiss," she said as she kissed him slowly before pulling away. "Good bye, Damien," she said at his shocked expression. Once her back was turned, she let an evil smile cross her lips. She had seen Angelina's face. One last stake into the girl's back made her feel much better about her decision. 

Damien stood there, stunned by her acquiescence. His mouth was warm from hers. He sighed and turned around to face her. Her face was a bright shade of red and her silvery eyes were practically burning daggers into Claudia's retreating back. "It's over. Let's leave it at that."

Angelina fisted her hands at her sides. "Leave it at that? Leave it at that!" she hissed, trying to keep her tone down. "You didn't even stop her from kissing you! You let her walk away when she deserved to have her spoiled little ass kicked. And instead, you go soft on her and let her walk away!  You should have told her off and be damned if you were causing a scene to make a point!"

Frowning, he shook his head at her too. "I'm not like that. It was better to nicely ask her because she did exactly as I asked. When I did it the other way several days ago, she persisted. I don't like making a scene over anything, not even something like this. Yes, she probably deserved to be dealt with a little more harshly, but I don't like being or acting like that towards any woman."

"Except to me," she snapped as she turned on her heel and stalked over to their table. She picked up her purse and crossed her arms. "I think this night is over. Take me home."

_"Fuck!" _he swore as he raised his eyes heavenwards and went over to the table. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. Her foot was tapping on the floor. _"Things finally start to go my way and I manage to screw it up again. You're luck with women just sucks! You were so close and you managed to go and put your foot in your mouth once more. You're such a fucking idiot!" _he thought as he paid the bill and followed her out. He practically choked on his own fury. He ruined things between them for her, but he had been honestly taken aback by Claudia's response. "I could have been firmer with her," he muttered under his breath as he started up the car. 

******************************************************************************

She sat with her arms crossed, slumped down into the soft leather seat. Blood was still boiling in her veins and she was biting the inside of her cheek to keep herself from screaming. She could taste the salty sweetness of blood in her mouth as she held everything in. _"So damn close and she had to get involved once again! My mother was right, I'm never going to have a happy life with anyone," _she thought as a sob formed in her throat. She could feel the burning in the back of her eyes as she kept herself under the rigid control she had taught herself to keep out the pain.

Well aware of the silent treatment she was subjecting him to; he let out a frustrated sigh. "This wasn't supposed to happen."

"Well it did."

"You think I wanted this to happen? No, I didn't."

"She saved you the trouble of turning me down."

"I never anything like that, otherwise, and you know it."

"She still wants you."

"I told her I wasn't interested."

"It doesn't matter to her. She'll find a way to sucker you back in."

"How stupid do you think I am to let her go and hurt me a second time?"

"Because like all men, you're idiots," she shouted at him, "And because you looked pretty stupid when she went and kissed you! And you let her!"

The bone shone through his knuckles as he clenched the steering wheel. "I didn't know what she intended. And I'm not insane enough to take her back. I didn't kiss her back," he growled. 

"You wanted to."

Damien slammed on the brakes. Oddly enough, he had taken her back to his house. "I didn't."  
  


Angelina looked out of the window. "This isn't where I'm staying. Take me home."

"No."

"No?"

"You're hearing is excellent. Now, get out of the car."

"NO!"

"Fine, we'll do this the hard way," he said as he got of the car and walked around to her side. He flung the Mercedes door open. "Get out."  
  


"Fuck off," she snarled as she turned her nose up at him. 

Her response infuriated him even more. He reached in and yanked the seat belt off of her before jerking her out of the seat. "You're making this harder then it has to be."

She sent him a look full of rage. She pushed her hands against him. "I don't have to take this."

"God help me," he muttered before he tossed her over his shoulder and shut the door with his foot. "You're going to because I'm not done with you," he said as he started walking towards the back of the mansion. He ignored her fists pounding into his back as he walked though the archway into the back and into the maze of fruit trees. 

"Put me down!" she shrieked as she squirmed on his shoulder. 

"Gladly," he said as he dumped her, unceremoniously onto her feet. "Now, you're going to listen to what I have to say to you." He raked one hand through his hair as he took a deep breath and stared into her face. _"She looks amazing when she's angry." _ "I did not want to kiss her back."

"Liar."

He snapped, making him slam his hands on the stonewall behind her, imprisoning her between them. "Fuck! What the hell do I have to do to get you to listen to me! I didn't want to kiss her! She surprised me before I reacted because I was not expecting her to do that! How many times do I have to say this! I'm not lying to you!"

The sudden outburst made her freeze and her eyes go wide. His face was inches from hers. The aqua eyes in front of her were burning with an inner light she had never seen before. This was the first time she had seen him lose his control. She titled her chin up. "Fine. Now let me go."

"I'm not finished."

"I am."

"I haven't told you what I wanted to say to you."

"I don't want to hear it."

"You're going to hear it whether you like it or not."

Angelina let out a mirthless laugh. "You think that's going to help you now? Say what you like, but she did exactly what she set out to do. She made damn sure that I never got you. But instead, she made sure that I wouldn't want you anymore."

"And do you still want me?"

"No, I don't."

"Dammit, Angelina, don't lie to me when I can see that your eyes are telling me otherwise! You wouldn't be denying it if you didn't!" he exclaimed as he grabbed her by the shoulders and gave her a slight shake. "You do care. I know that you do. Because I care about you too and I'll be damned if I let you go because of your stubbornness!"

The vehemence in his tone made her gasp a split second before he kissed her. Really and truly kissed her. She felt his grip loosen and slide up and down her arms to her elbows. Sensations began to hit her from every direction. This is not how she imagined getting kissed by him. Sweet and soft had come to mind, but it was hot and intense. Her knees buckled as her clenched fingers fell slack as she reached up to steady herself while her universe tilted on it's axis. 

Damien couldn't believe he was kissing her. He couldn't believe that she was kissing him back. His own feelings rushed towards him from all directions as he felt her touch on his arms. He gathered her even closer, his arms wrapping around her back. 

Angelina couldn't help herself as her hands crept up his arms before plowing them though his hair to securely lock behind his neck. All thoughts fled once his tongue insinuated its way between her lips. Her fingers dug into the back of his neck, pulling him as close to her as she could. 

The push of her nails stung, but he didn't care. All he cared about was what they were doing, and how they were making each other feel. But he had to come up for air as he tore his lips away from hers. Sucking in the cool night air, he waited as her eyes finally opened. They were shining. "Angelina, I do care about you. I wanted to be able to tell you that because I didn't want you go on thinking that I didn't feel something for you."

"Do you really mean that?"

He nodded. "I care so much it scares me."

Tears welled up in her eyes and slipped down her cheeks. The damn holding back all her emotions finally broke. 

He pressed his forehead against hers. "Don't cry." 

"I can't help it," she wailed softly as nearly ten years worth of pent up crying hurdled to the forefront. 

Tilting her chin up with his finger, he did what he did the last time. Her trembling lips parted willingly against his. They were already wet from her tears. Intent on making her stop the only way he knew how, he swung her up in his arms and carried her into the house, his lips still connected to hers. 

_A/N: Hi, I'm back! I know I've been a bad girl by not updating very quickly, but my life is so full right now, I couldn't even begin to describe it to you. But here it is, the next installment. I hope you all enjoy it and get set to see the conclusion of this story and Out of Control in the upcoming week! XOXO!!_                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            


	15. The Morning After

_Disclaimer: I don't own them except for the kids!_

The Perfect Temptation, Part 15 

**__**

The sky was the palest of blues as the dawn approached, illuminating the room with a grayish light. The heavy white panels that covered the two large windows were open to the merest of slits so that two narrow strips of the white sun cut across the area rugs and the hardwood floor. The room was painted in a slate blue, the doors painted in the same color with white trimming. Just next to the door was a chair, on it was a black beaded purse. A few feet away from the chair, on the floor was kicked off strappy heels and nearby were a pair of shiny black oxfords. Blue argyle socks lay on the hardwood floor, not too far away in one of the stripes of light penetrating the room. A blue silk tie had been tossed over the back of another chair and a darker blue dress shirt was laying in a puddle next to it, having missed the back of it completely. And just barely clinging to the mahogany footboard was a sheer black stocking, and its twin was flung around the rounded post. 

In the bed, a set of painted pink toes pulled themselves under the knitted blanket again to curl around the ankle of the larger foot next to it. The linens shifted as the smaller form turned their body against the warmth of the larger one. The blanket was pulled up around their shoulders. The owner's mother had made the patterned knit over the course of her pregnancy. A sigh escaped a pair of lips, causing one set of eyes to finally peer open. 

Damien closed his eyes again before blinking them back open again. He smiled as he looked at the wild tangle of copper trailing across the crisp blue pillowcase like a fire. He reached from under the blanket and smoothed back a few strands that had fallen across her face during the night. Resting his palm against her cheek, he took note of the contrast between his darker tanned skin and the milky whiteness of hers. He bent his head closer, touching his nose to hers. Hers wrinkled at the touch before relaxing again. There was a hint of a smile touching her pink lips as she continued to sleep. "How could someone not think you're beautiful?" he murmured as he trailed his finger across the softness of her warm flushed cheek. Her lashes fluttered, but didn't open. His hand slid back under the blanket again, pulling her closer. Pressing his lips against hers, he waited to see if it woke her. Sooty lashes fluttered before revealing the startling silver behind them. "Good morning, Angelina," he whispered. 

A sleepy smile crossed Angelina's lips as she looked into the glowing aquamarine eyes in front of hers. "Good morning," she replied as she tightened her hold on his back. She closed her eyes again and cuddled closer to his body. She could feel his heart thumping steadily against her palms. She smiled against him. _"I never thought that sleeping with someone could feel this good. It's nice to have someone's arms around you. It makes you feel protected and loved. Loved…what a word for me to be thinking. I'm not really sure that I love him yet, but I would like to,"_ she thought as she smiled again. "What time is it?" 

Lifting his head he glanced at the clock on the far side of the bed. "Seven," he replied as he lay his head back down. He rested his chin on the top of her shining hair before kissing it. "Why? Want to sleep longer?"

"I'm not a morning person. Anyone can attest to that. When I was little and the Maxwells would come and visit my dad and I on L2, and the boys would always try to wake me up, being used to Randy running around first thing," she said, her eyes still closed and her voice muffled. "There was one time I threw my alarm clock and I'm not quite sure, but it hit one of them in the foot. I could hear him cursing up a storm before Duo and my dad came in and gave them a stern reprimand for bothering me at eight in the morning. All I did was roll over and pull the blankets over my head again. I was eleven years old."

He laughed at her tale. "The brother would have to be Jonathon or David. Rumor has it that Chris is the hardest person to wake up in the morning."

"He is. When I was twelve, Randy and I started hitting him with pillows…it was seven in the morning. Let me just say I never ran so fast in my entire life. You do not intentionally piss off a male Maxwell first thing in the morning."

"Did he catch the two of you?"

"No, we got cowardly and hid behind Duo."

Damien burst out into laughter as he imagined the seventeen year old, messily braided Chris coming after Angelina and his baby sister only to have his path blocked to him by his father. "It was a smart thing for you two to do. He would have spanked the hell out you both."

"I know, why do you think we hid," she giggled as she tilted her head back to look him in the face. 

He looked down at her as their laughter faded. With a soft smile, he cupped the back of her head and brought her lips to his for a kiss. He loved the way she melted into him as soon as their lips touched. It made him think of last night, when he had kissed her repeatedly. He had lost count, but it hadn't mattered. He crumpled her silky hair in his hand as the intensity of the kiss increased. 

Her lips parted against his, allowing him to slide his tongue inside. The grip on his back increased and she fitted her body even more snugly against his. Goosebumps spread over her skin as she felt the gentle touch of his hand as it swept down the side of her body. 

All he could feel was rapid rise and fall of her breasts against his chest and her tongue sliding over his. They were as close as they could get without him being inside of her. _"And by Allah do I want to. I never wanted to be that close with someone so much before, but it's too soon. She's not fast like she acts like she does and I don't go that fast to begin with…but damn, it is a tempting thought," _he contemplated as threw all that he had into the kiss. 

_"I've never been kissed like this in my entire life. I've never felt so much before. It's like he sucking the life out of me, but at the same time, he infuses me with everything that I'm making him feel. This kiss tells me that he hasn't felt something like this in his entire life. It makes me glad that he's sharing those feelings with me," _she thought with a smile as she opened her mouth wider under his.  

He didn't want to stop kissing her; he could feel all the emotions that she kept bottled up inside of her. His heart was thundering in his ears, making it hard for him to listen to his thoughts. He also wanted to talk to her. There hadn't been a chance last night to get a conversation since his tongue had been twined with hers for the better part of the night. And if it wasn't her mouth his was glued to, it was her skin that was bared by her dress. He hadn't allowed it to progress any further than what was transpiring now. He had always prided himself on his self-control, but right now it was hanging on just barely. Nipping at her lips, he finally pulled his away. Looking down into her face, he smiled. He brushed back some of her hair and tucked it behind her ear. "You look beautiful this morning."

Angelina smiled back as she gazed back at him. "I couldn't possibly look that good. My hair is a tangle, my makeup looks like hell, face all puffy and red, dress wrinkled…but thank you for saying so," she said as she touched her nose to his. She could still feel her heart racing from his kiss. "Why did you pull away?"

"I wanted to talk before we got occupied again."

"What about?"

"You. I want to know about you. And I'm sure there's things you want to know about me."

Giving him an uncertain look, she slowly pushed herself up on her one elbow. She plucked absently on the comforter beneath her. "There isn't that much to tell."

"Don't hide from me, Angie, please?" he asked as he leaned up as well. He touched his forehead to hers. "Look at me. We can't go on hiding behind these facades. If you want me, you'll have to talk to me. I want to know about the real you. The one I know hides behind that  "sex goddess" smile of yours."

She could still feel his fingers softly stroking her cheek. His eyes were so warm and gentle. Swallowing, she turned her face into his palm. "You really want to know?"

He nodded his head. "Yes."

Sitting up, she drew her knees against her chest. One of the straps slid off her shoulder to loop against her elbow. "Where do you want me to start?"

"Beginning if possible, but before you begin, you were right about the dress being wrinkled," he said as he got off the bed and went over to his bureau. He took out a tee shirt and a pair of boxers. "Put these on. I can have Mattie launder the dress so there won't be any wrinkles," he said as he handed them to her. 

"Thank you," she replied as she slid from beneath the blanket. Her toes curled into the area rug from its coolness. She looked up at him. "The perfect gentleman would turn around now, not unless you want to get a preview of all that I have," she teased, watching a flush working its way across his face again. 

"Uh…sure," he said as he turned his back. He closed his eyes, trying not to pay attention to the sound of her dress sliding down her body, and wishing he were the one taking it off. Or not to imagine the acres of creamy skin being exposed again along with the voluptuous hills and hollows of her body. He shifted on his feet, making his pants brush against the top of them. Crossing his arms, he rested them over the white tank he was still wearing. He squelched more indecent thoughts of her as he turned his head to the side, but kept his eyes away. "You finished?"

"Yes," was her soft reply as she draped the dress over the foot of the bed.  She smiled when he turned around again. There was still a faint flush under his tan. "You're blushing again."

"It's something very hard to break. I can't seem to help it," he said as his eyes trekked from her tousled hair to her painted toes. He had given her one of the smallest shirts he owned and a pair of boxers that she had rolled up since they now hit the upper part of her thigh as the shirt did. "But didn't you say you liked it when I blushed?"

She nodded her head; aware of the way his eyes were traveling up and down her body. "It's a cute reaction especially from a someone with a tan like yours. You light up like a light bulb," she said with a grin.

He pretended to look affronted, but he grinned back as he swept her up in his arms and deposited her back in the bed. Leaning back against the pillows, he pulled her back against him before tugging the quilt back up. He propped his chin on her shoulder. "Now, would you tell me about yourself?"

"Where do you want me to start?" she asked as she settled against his chest, resting her arms over his, which were wrapped about her waist. She meshed her fingers with his. 

"The beginning."

Taking a deep breath, she tilted her chin up to look up at him. "It's long."

"We got time."

"All right," she sighed as she closed her eyes and lowered her head. "I was born Angelina Maria Baker, November 25, A.C 204, to the model, Celesta Baker, and the Gundam technician, Howard, on the L2 colony. I was a smart child, being the daughter of the last living person who created the first mobile suits. I was tested, an I.Q test to be exact when I was five. It was above two hundred. I'm a genius, like Randy and your brother, although, I tested much higher then them," she said as opening her eyes again, and looking at the far wall. She took a deep breath before continuing, "But that didn't matter to my mother. I was not what she pictured her child to look. I wore glasses like my father did; I had braces, and millions of freckles spread across my face like a carpet. In a word, I was a nerdy looking child. My mom hated the way I looked and blamed my dad for giving her an ugly child…I don't think I was meant to hear that, but I did…I was seven years old," she choked out, the memory bringing tears to the backs of her eyes. 

Anger rose from her mother's insensitive words. Damien ground his teeth together before he pressed a kiss on her hair. "Go on."

Swallowing, she took another deep breath before continuing, "My parents divorced when I was ten, my mother hated the scrap yard. She said it wasn't fitting for a model to live in a place like that and it was a place that my dad felt home at. I did too because I could fiddle around with the parts in the yard. I could put things together in a flash. I was also put in an accelerated school program, so I was already several years ahead in school. I was with kids three, four years older than me. So on the divorce papers it says irreconcilable differences. I was allowed two weekends a month with my dad, the rest of the time, I lived with my mother. I hated it…she didn't love me, really, because I wasn't what she wanted me to be. I wasn't a miniature version of her…the little beauty queen…I was a brain far more advanced than her. I endured hours of verbal abuse, so by the time I started adolescence, I was incredibly insecure about the way I looked…but when I was at my dad, and when the Maxwells would come to visit, I was happy…" she said, a wistful note in her voice. 

"They became your "family."  
  


"More or less. Chris, Jonathon, and David treated me like a little sister, and Randy was the sister I always wanted. Duo was a second dad to me, who loved me, just like my real dad did…and Hilde, she was my mom. A real mom, who made me feel like one of her own…those were the happiest times in my childhood and adolescence," she said a smile crossing her face, "It made me never want to leave my dad's house. I was content there because there, I wasn't ridiculed for being bright, but encouraged to learn as much as I could. It was also that time, that I had surgery to correct my vision. My retina's were becoming detached, so I surgery was the only way to fix them. I still had to wear glasses, but I was given contacts. I was thirteen. My freckles were also starting to fade, which was nice because the boys would tease me, very nicely about them. Jonathon used to run his fingers on my face, connecting the freckles, and then he would ruffle my hair and say I was going to be a gorgeous in a few years once they faded. I laughed when he said that because it was already ingrained in me by my mother, that I would never be beautiful."

"He was right."

"But I didn't believe that then, not with the constant barrage by my mother. When I was fourteen, the braces came off and my freckles were down to a few that bridged my nose and cheeks. I was also skinny as hell. I also didn't fit in very well with the kids I went to school with either. They could all really share their gifts and tell the world what they could really do. I couldn't because what I know, what I can do, would make me the target for a number of things. And they thought that I thought I was too good for them to share my gift, but it wasn't that I didn't want to. I was shunned by them, making me a loner all because of what I can do."

"What can you do?" he asked as he gave her hands a reassuring squeeze.

Raking her teeth over her lips, she closed her eyes. "I could build another MS, just like the Gundams if I wanted to. I'm the daughter of a man who helped bring them about. It makes me very valuable and very dangerous. I can design them, I could even improve upon the original designs of the original Gundams plus the two Tallgeeses," she replied softly. Letting out a sigh, she opened her eyes again. "So, you see, what I know could destroy everything. Nothing major, that I know will have good come from it, so I'm more or less hidden away on L2.  There, I'm safe. My gifts can't harm anyone if I work in a scrap yard and repair shop. But the little things I can do, aren't enough to satisfy anyone either. I'm isolated because of it…couple that with my mother's harping on my looks, it made me very miserable."

Damien remained silent. He would have never had guessed that she was even smarter than his brother. She hid it so well, but at the same time, to know what she knew…it did make her a hazard to the society in which they lived, in which their fathers had worked so hard for. _"Not only is she insecure about her looks, she's afraid of what she knows, of what she can do." _"Do you hate your gift?" he asked quietly.

"No, I don't hate it. I'm lucky to be as smart as I am, but what I don't like, is hiding it. Your father's all know about my "gift" and so does the Lady. There is a file on me because of it, but no one says anything about it, and I'm supposed to act like it doesn't exist. I didn't ask for the knowledge of being able to build mobile suits, but I was. When I was younger, I used to think it was a curse to be born with it because there was no way it could be put to use. It made me a threat, so it was kept quiet. And it has to stay that way because technically I'm not supposed to tell anyone because they could use them to get to me…so you can never repeat what I've told you…I'll get in trouble for telling you my secret…" she said as she turned her worried filled eyes towards him. 

He cupped her cheek with one hand. "You have my word that I'll never tell anyone, but I will someday have to tell my father that I know. At this point, it shouldn't be kept from me, I just want to know who you really are, and this is part of you."

A tremulous smile crossed her lips. " I understand. Thank you."

Smiling, he pressed a soft kiss on her lips. "Is there more?"

She turned around again, settling against his chest. "Even though I was no great beauty, I did date…but I was only a means to get a glimpse of my mother. She liked being the center of attention and the more guys I dated, the more she lorded it over me that I was just a nothing to them. I had begun to retaliate by using my sexuality, which my mother said that would be the only way I would get someone, to draw attention to myself. I had learned well…my mother was an excellent teacher. Her words had ceased to hurt me by the time I turned sixteen. I grew a thick skin towards her barbs and all the pain and rage…I buried deep inside. But it was already in me that I would never be gorgeous like her and never have someone. A guy would marry me for my brain and nothing else…that was my only asset…The real me, however, was buried so deep, Jonathon was the only one who could really pry it out of me…he cared so much about me…And Chris and David were much the same…I felt special because I had three handsome guys, who loved me for who I really was, not who I pretended to be all the time."

"Maxwells seem to be blessed with luck when it comes to understanding women," Damien sighed as he leaned his head back. "It's something I wish I had, but that's for later, I want to hear more about you."

"When I was seventeen, I graduated from L1's top university. At the same time, I petitioned the courts to let me live with my father instead of with my mother…it was a costly process, but I finally got my wish. But it wasn't without the screaming and the name-calling. Duo and Hilde came, as well as the rest of them… for support. My mother was dragged out of the court and she hissed something at me that got Hilde out of her seat and ready for blood…my father and Duo and to hold her back, for she would have taken the chair she had been sitting on to my mother," she replied as she closed her eyes again. "I was finally free of my mother…but not of the things she had said to me for most of my life…so you wonder why I refute your words when you say that I'm beautiful, I have a hard time believing them…and it's not because I don't want to, but no one has told me that before…Jonathon, Chris, and David don't count because they're like brothers to me, but you're the first guy who ever told me that."

"And it's true. You are extremely attractive, but there's more to what's outside. It's what's in your heart that counts. And I see a very strong woman, who has been able to crumble the walls that I've kept up for a long time and to make me feel so intensely about her…that it scares me. You're the first and only girl to affect me that way. And it makes you special…you have a presence that I can't ignore even if I wanted to…and that makes you special. And Jonathon's prediction did come true…you've become a gorgeous woman outside and in. And I think you're a lot prettier than your mother."

Angelina felt like crying again. She had no idea what effect she had on him, that he would feel so strongly about her. _"That's why he fought me so hard. He's scared of strong emotions because he's been burned once…but I'm going to make sure that doesn't happen to him again. He feels for me just as much as I do him," _she thought with an inwards smile. She turned towards him again. "Thank you for understanding who I am. And thank you the most for caring about me like you do."  
  


He smiled into her tear filled eyes. "I'm always going to care about you. I know it takes a lot of courage to tell me what you had to, but I appreciate that you trust me with it…it makes me feel good about myself…and I haven't felt that way in a while. So, I should thank you too, Angelina."

Tears slipped down her cheeks as she threw her arms about his neck, hugging him tight to her. She buried her face against his neck as she felt his arms tighten about her, holding her close. She leaned away again and kissed him hard. 

He was startled by her kiss, but it didn't stop him from returning it with wholehearted enthusiasm. His back slid down the pillow behind him until he was on his back with her leaning over him. Sliding his hands down to her waist, he pulled her on top of him. 

The material of his pants felt good against her legs, bared by his boxers. She could feel his thumbs rotating over her hipbones, while his fingers tapped underneath them.   She parted her lips against his as his tongue slid over it and between them. It sent shivers down her spine, making her react by pulling herself higher against him. 

Damien couldn't stop the growl that reverberated in his throat as her curving figure glided up his. His fingers tightened on her hips before they boldly slid over her boxer-clad rear under the warm blanket. 

She gasped as his warm hands slid over her posterior. His heart beat strongly against her chest. Tugging her lips free of his for the moment, she looked down at him as her hair fell down the sides of her face. "Thank you for making me feel wanted."

"You're welcome. Thank you for trusting me," he replied as he looked up into her face. The silkiness of her hair brushed against his cheeks. Tilting his head up, he kissed her again. 

Smiling against his mouth, she pressed herself as close to him as she could get. 

And his body reacted to each press and rub of hers. His fingers dug more into her resilient flesh. 

******************************************************************************

"You know he should be up by now," Quatrina muttered as she tapped her foot impatiently outside her brother's door. 

"I think it's best to leave him alone, Quat," Mira replied with a smile, having felt the extremely strong emotions pouring off of Angelina and her brother. 

"Nonsense, he always gets up early since he has so much work to do," the only russet haired Winner child replied with a snort. Her hand touched the knob. 

"And I'm telling you, that you should let him sleep," Mira sighed as she caught her sister's hand before it turned the knob. 

"Mira, it's his habit. You know he doesn't like to break them," she said as she shook her hand free of her little sister's. 

The eighteen year old sighed again and entwined her fingers behind her back. "Don't say I didn't warn you…"

Quatrina rolled her deep violet eyes and pushed the door open. Her mouth fell open. "OH MY GOD!"

******************************************************************************

Damien pushed Angelina off of him in one fluid motion to behold the shocked look of his twin sister. "Quatrina, what the hell are you doing?" he yelled at his slack mouthed sister. 

"I could ask you the same thing," she snapped back. 

"I told you leave it alone and you got more than you bargained for, Quatrina. For being as smart as you are, you sure don't listen to reason when it calls for it," Mira said, some disdain written on her pretty features before she turned away and started down the hall. "But then again, it was worth seeing the look on your face!" she laughed. 

Quatrina's face turned scarlet at her sister's remark. Avoiding her brother's icy aquamarine gaze, glared once at the copper haired girl in his bed, before she stuck her chin up and walked out of the room, slamming the door behind her. 

Angelina regarded the entire scene with horrified amusement. She snickered into the pillow once the door made the windows rattle. "I must say, that was an auspicious entrance…and couple that with the look she just sent me…" She burst into outright laughter. 

Damien shot her a droll look. "I fail to see the humor in this."

"Didn't you see the look on her face? She looked like she had been hit with a two by four."  
  


"Quatrina does not believe in…what we were doing."

"And does that matter to you?" she asked, her tone serious. 

"It does and it doesn't because I know why she does, but I'm also not as narrow minded as her."  
  


"Would your parents care?"

"Not too much. My dad won't like it, but he won't say anything about it."

"Do you regret being caught?" she asked softly as she leaned up on her elbows to look at him. Her silvery eyes regarded him carefully. 

Staring straight into her eyes, he smiled and shook his head. "No. I don't," he replied, giving her a tender kiss. He lifted his lips from hers. "I would probably do it all over again because her expression…was worth the laughter."

The infectious grin and the mischievous light in his eyes made her burst into laughter all over again. 

_A/N: Here it is! I know it took longer than I said it would, but it's here. There will be an epilogue, so stay tuned. And look for the next part of Out of Control, coming soon! XOXO!!_

  
  



	16. Love's Surprise

_Disclaimer: I don't own them except for the kids!_

The Perfect Temptation: Epilogue 

**__**

Celesta Baker Jordan Cross lay across her canopied bed, idly flipping the channels. Her third husband was out golfing as usual. Her hair, still a bright red, thanks to monthly trips to the salon to keep it that way, contrasted with the cream satin pillows propped behind her. Perfectly manicured red nails clicked on the plastic as she tried to find something to watch. With a pouting sigh she finally chose the stock reports channel. She had stock in Winner Corp. "Let's see how I'm doing," she said as she watched the CEO, Quatre Winner take the stage. 

The wind ruffled the silvery blond locks of Quatre's hair as he stood out on the podium in front of his building in the Sank Kingdom. His dark blue suit brought out the blue in his eyes, making them look more intense and his hair gleam. "Today, I called you all here to announce a change in leadership of the Winner Corporation. I have spent many, many years improving this company so it has far exceeded my expectations, and if my father was alive today, and his. I have had control since the day I turned sixteen, it is time to pass the responsibility onto the next generation," he said, his voice strong and clear. His aquamarine eyes crinkled at the corners as he looked towards the cameras filming in the back of the courtyard. "And as according to my father's wishes, and now my own, the company will remain in control of the family." He looked out of the corner of his eye towards his four children sitting in the front row. "And now, I would like to introduce my eldest son, Damien, as the next CEO of Winner Corporation," he said as he moved aside, nodding towards his son…and Angelina, who sat next to him, his hand linked with hers. 

******************************************************************************

Celesta sat up a little and scrutinized the son. She pushed the button, enlarging the view of the son of Quatre Winner. A smile touched her lips. "Handsome, smart, rich, and young, just the way I like them. He could be an interesting person to meet," she mused, having missed the flash of copper to his right. 

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Damien felt the squeeze of Angelina's hand as he stood. He smiled at her and gave her a quick wink before walking towards the center of the platform. His own dark blue suit matched his father's except for the bright blue shirt and matching silk tie. He shook his father's hand, smiling again, as he took his place in front of the lectern. The wind mussed his brushed hair, putting it back into it's usual disarray. "Thank you, dad," he said, nodding his head in the direction of his parents, his father, holding onto his mother's hand now. He straightened and faced the crowd in front of him. He did not like press conferences; Vaughn did much better with public speaking. Clearing his throat, he glanced back at Angelina. She gave him a reassuring smile, making him feel more confident. "As my father announced, I have accepted the position of CEO of Winner Corporation. Under my leadership and supervision, things will done as they always have, but we will diversify in markets that we are not known for. One major area I will likely improve upon, will be the manufacture of mobilized suits to better deal with the daily maintenance on the outer walls of the colonies," he began, his voice growing stronger and louder as he relaxed. 

Angelina let a smile play about her lips as she watched him talk. He had paced around his room that morning, worrying about how it was going to go. She had been reassuring him all morning, trying to calm down his nerves before he had to go and speak. She had felt his hand tighten on hers when it had come time for him to stand. He had practiced his speech for her, enough times for her to know it by heart, and so far, he was doing quite well. Her fingers smoothed over the simple aquamarine band that circled her ring finger on her left hand. It was a promise ring, but she knew in her heart that he loved her. He had blushed and stuttered when he had given it to her this morning. Her hair was styled, courtesy of Veronica, who was sitting on Vaughn's left, holding his hand, rather tightly. She smiled, glad that things had worked out for the two of them. Her eyes went back to Damien; she bowed her head a little. _"I hope dad is watching this. I called him this morning and told him that we would be on at noon… and I wonder if my mom is watching? I bet she wouldn't believe what she's seeing…the bitch didn't think I could have a Winner fall in love with me, like I am with him," _she thought as a smirk touched her lips.  Her eyes rose to him again, proud that she was sitting there as his girlfriend. 

Damien looked down at his speech on top of the lectern. He was going to announce the designer of the new suits to be used on the colonies' walls. However, she didn't even know it yet. He had told his father about knowing Angelina's capabilities, and wanting her to design the new suits. He had agreed after a talk with the Lady. And now, he wanted to tell her. "And to update the new suits, we will have the pleasure to announce their new designer. She is here with us today, Miss Angelina Baker."

She looked up, startled, her eyes widening several degrees. 

"Go on, get your butt up there, Angie," Vaughn whispered in her ear

Angelina stood up, her legs shaking as she walked across the stage towards him. She kept her eyes trained on his. She barely felt the warmth of his hands close around hers. "Damien, what are you…?"

Damien smiled as the silvery eyes searched his. He gave her hands a squeeze. "Don't worry. I've already cleared this with the Lady and our dads'. It'll be good for you. I want you to do it. You have a unique talent and you are allowed to show some of it off."

She felt his thumbs stroke her pulse points, calming her a little. _"He did this for me. I can't believe he did this. How much persuasion did he have to use to get the Lady, my father, his, and the rest of them to agree to this? But he's giving me my chance to do something good with my talents. I don't want to hide them anymore, like I don't hide from him anymore." _"Thank you, Damien," she whispered, and then to the shock of the crowd, and the delight of Vaughn and Mira, and some of the other kids, she kissed him.

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Celesta nearly fell off the bed at the sight of her daughter, kissing the oldest Winner heir. "How did she…? When did she…? …ANGELINA!" 

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Quatre smiled and brought Cathy's hand up for a kiss. He smiled at her and returned it to her lap, their fingers, still interlocked. 

Damien wrapped his arms around her and enjoyed her spontaneity. "I love you," he whispered against her soft lips. 

Shocked again, she looked up at him. "You love me?"

He flushed and gave her a lopsided grin. "Yeah, I guess I do."

"Damien, I love you too!" She brought his lips back for another kiss making the crowd and the press cheer even louder. 

_A/N: Hope you all enjoyed this story! Stay tuned for the upcoming conclusion "I Will Never Be the Same" and the upcoming stories featuring the Merquise brothers and their bouts in the ring of romance. XOXO!!!_


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